THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Charles  Gullans 


JOHN  LOTHROP  MOTLEY. 


A  MEMOIR. 


OLIVEK  WENDELL  HOLMES. 


BOSTON: 

HOUGHTON,  OSGOOD  AND  COMPANY. 
^Hje  Etbersfoe  $ress, 
1879. 


COPYRIGHT,  1878. 

BY  OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES. 


Ml  rights  resented. 


ELECTROTYPED  AND  PRINTED  AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS, 
CAMBRIDGE. 


INTRODUCTOKY  NOTE. 

THE  Memoir  here  given  to  the  public  is  based  on  a 
biographical  sketch  prepared  by  the  writer  at  the  re 
quest  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  for  its 
Proceedings.  The  questions  involving  controversies 
into  which  the  Society  could  not  feel  called  to  enter 
are  treated  at  considerable  length  in  the  following 
pages.  Many  details  are  also  given  which  would  have 
carried  the  paper  written  for  the  Society  beyond  the 
customary  limits  of  such  tributes  to  the  memory  of 
its  deceased  members.  It  is  still  but  an  outline  which 
may  serve  a  present  need  and  perhaps  be  of  some 
assistance  to  a  future  biographer. 


CONTENTS. 


SECTION  PAGE 

I.     Birth  and  Early  Years.     (1814-1827.) 1 

II.     College  Life.     (1827-1831.) 9 

III.  Study  and  Travel  in  Europe.     (1832-1833.) 16 

IV.  Return  to  America.  —  Study  of  Law.  —  Marriage.  —  His 

first  Novel,  "Morton's  Hope."    (1834-1839.) 21 

V.  First  Diplomatic  Appointment,  —  Secretary  of  Legation  to 
the  Russian  Mission.  —  Brief  Residence  at  St.  Petersburg. 

—  Letter  to  his  Mother.  —  Return.     (1841  - 1842.) 36 

VI.     Letter  to  Park  Benjamin.  —  Political  Views  and  Feelings. 

(1844.) 42 

VII.     First   Historical   and   Critical   Essays.  —  Peter  the  Great. 

—  Novels  of  Balzac.  —  Polity  of  the   Puritans.     (1845- 
1847.) 47 

VIII.  Joseph  Lewis  Stackpole,  the  friend  of  Motley.  His  sudden 
death.  —  Motley  in  the  Massachusetts  House  of  Repre 
sentatives.  —  Second  Novel,  —  "  Merry  Mount,  A  Ro 
mance  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony."  (1847-1849.) 54 

IX.     Plan  of  a  History.  —  Letters.     (1850.) 61 

X.     Historical  Studies  in  Europe. — Letter  from  Brussels.    (1851 

-1856.) 67 

XI.  Publication  of  his  first  Historical  "Work,  —  "  Rise  of  the 
Dutch  Republic. "  —  Its  Reception.  —  Critical  Notices.  — 
(1856-1857.) 74 


vi  Contents. 

XII.     Visit  to  America.  —  Residence  in  Boylston  Place.      (1856 

-1857.) 82 

XIII.  Return  to  England.  — Social  Relations.  —  Lady  Harcourt's 

Letter.     (1858-1860.)  83 

XIV.  Letter  to  Mr.  Francis  H.  Underwood.  —  Plan  of  Mr.  Mot 

ley's  Historical  Works. —  Second  Great  Work,  "  History 

of  the  United  Netherlands."     (1859.) 86 

XV.     Publication  of  the  first  two  Volumes  of  the  "History  of 

the  United  Netherlands."  —  Their  Reception.     (1860.)     93 

XVI.  Residence  in  England.  —  Outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  — 
Letter  to  the  London  Times.  — Visit  to  America.  —  Ap 
pointed  Minister  to  Austria.  —  Lady  Harcourt's  Letter. 

—  Miss  Motley's  Memorandum.     (1860-1866.)    101 

XVII.     Letters  from  Vienna.     (1861-1863.) 107 

XVIII.     Resignation  of  his   Office.  —  Causes  of  his  Resignation. 

(1866-1867.)  127 

XIX.  Last  two  Volumes  of  the  "  History  of  the  United  Nether 
lands."  —  General  Criticisms  of  Dutch  Scholars  on  Mot 
ley's  Historical  Works.  (1867-1868.) 141 

XX.     Visit  to  America.  —  Residence  at  No.  2  Park  Street,  Boston. 

—  Address  on  the  coming  Presidential  Election.  —  Ad 
dress  on  the  Historic  Progress  of  American  Democracy. 

—  Appointed  Minister  to  England.     (1868-1869.) 149 

XXI.     Recall  from  the  English  Mission.  —  Its  Alleged  and   its 

Probable  Reasons.     (1869-1870.) 155 

XXII.     Life  of  John  of  Barneveld.  —  Criticisms.  —  Groen  van 

Prinsterer.     (1874.) 191 

XXIII.  Death  of  Mrs.  Motley.  —  Last  Visit  to  America.  —  Illness 

and  Death.  —  Lady  Harcourt's  Communication.    (1874  - 
1877.) 213 

XXIV.  Conclusion.  —  His   Character.  —  His   Labors.  —  His   Re 

ward  ...  ..  219 


Contents.  vii 


APPENDIX. 

A.  The  Saturday  Club 225 

B.  Habits  and  Methods  of  Study 229 

C.  Sir  William  Gull's  Account  of  his  Illness 231 

D.  Place  of  Burial.  —  Funeral  Service.  —  Epitaphs.  —  Dean   Stan 

ley's  Funeral  Sermon 241 

E.  From  the  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society....  245 

F.  List  of  his  Honorary  Titles  273 

G.  Poems  by  W.  W.  Story  and  William  CuUen  Bryant 275 


JOHN  LOTHROP  MOTLEY. 


I. 

Birth  and  Early  Tears.     (1814-1827.) 

JOHN  MOTLEY,  the  great-grandfather  of  the  sub 
ject  of  this  Memoir,  came  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
last  century  from  Belfast  in  Ireland  to  Falmouth, 
now  Portland,  in  the  District,  now  the  State  of 
Maine.  He  was  twice  married,  and  had  ten  chil 
dren,  four  of  the  first  marriage  and  six  of  the  last. 
Thomas,  the  youngest  son  by  his  first  wife,  married 
Emma,  a  daughter  of  John  Wait,  the  first  Sheriff 
of  Cumberland  County  under  the  government  of 
the  United  States.  Two  of  their  seven  sons, 
Thomas  and  Edward,  removed  from  Portland  to 
Boston  in  1802  and  established  themselves  as  part 
ners  in  commercial  business,  continuing  united  and 
prosperous  for  nearly  half  a  century  before  the  firm 
was  dissolved. 

The  earlier  records  of  New  England  have  pre 
served  the  memory  of  an  incident  which  deserves 


SECTION  I. 


Ancestry. 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


mention  as  showing  how  the  historian's  life  was 
saved  by  a  quick-witted  handmaid,  more  than  a 
hundred  years  before  he  was  born.  On  the  29th 
of  August,  1708,  the  French  and  Indians  from 
Canada  made  an  attack  upon  the  town  of  Haver- 
hill,  in  Massachusetts.  Thirty  or  forty  persons 
were  slaughtered,  and  many  others  were  carried 
captive  into  Canada 

The  minister  of  the  town,  Eev.  Benjamin  Rolfe, 
was  killed  by  a  bullet  through  the  door  of  his 
house.  Two  of  his  daughters,  Mary,  aged  thirteen, 
and  Elizabeth,  aged  nine,  were  sleeping  in  a  room 
with  the  maid-servant,  Hagar.  When  Hagar  heard 
the  whoop  of  the  savages  she  seized  the  children, 
ran  with  them  into  the  cellar,  and,  after  concealing 
them  under  two  large  washtubs,  hid  herself.  The 
Indians  ransacked  the  cellar,  but  missed  the  prey. 
Elizabeth,  the  younger  of  the  two  girls,  grew  up 
and  married  the  Rev.  Samuel  Checkley,  first  min 
ister  of  the  "New  South"  Church,  Boston.  Her 
son,  Rev.  Samuel  Checkley,  Junior,  was  minister  of 
the  Second  Church,  and  his  successor,  Rev.  John 
Lothrop,  or  Lathrop,  as  it  was  more  commonly 
spelled,  married  his  daughter.  Dr.  Lothrop  was 
great-grandson  of  Rev.  John  Lothrop,  of  Scituate, 
who  had  been  imprisoned  in  England  for  noncon 
formity.  The  Checkleys  were  from  Preston  Capes, 
in  Northamptonshire.  The  name  is  probably  iden- 


A  Memoir. 

tical  with  that  of  the  Chicheles  or  Chichleys,  a 
well-known  Northamptonshire  family. 

Thomas  Motley  married  Anna,  daughter  of  the 
Eev.  John  Lothrop,  granddaughter  of  the  Eev. 
Samuel  Checkley,  Junior,  the  two  ministers  men 
tioned  above,  both  honored  in  their  day  and  gene 
ration.  Eight  children  were  born  of  this  marriage, 
of  whom  four  are  still  living. 

JOHN  LOTHROP  MOTLEY,  the  second  of  these 
children,  was  born  in  Dorchester,  now  a  part  of 
Boston,  Massachusetts,  on  the  15th  of  April,  1814. 
A  member  of  his  family  gives  a  most  pleasing  and 
interesting  picture,  from  his  own  recollections  and 
from  what  his  mother  told  him,  of  the  childhood 
which  was  to  develop  into  such  rich  maturity.  The 
boy  was  rather  delicate  in  organization,  and  not 
much  given  to  outdoor  amusements,  except  skating 
and  swimming,  of  which  last  exercise  he  was  very 
fond  in  his  young  days,  and  in  which  he  excelled. 
He  was  a  great  reader,  never  idle,  but  always  had 
a  book  in  his  hand,  —  a  volume  of  poetry  or  one  of 
the  novels  of  Scott  or  Cooper.  His  fondness  for 
plays  and  declamation  is  illustrated  by  the  story 
told  by  a  younger  brother,  who  remembers  being 
wrapped  up  in  a  shawl  and  kept  quiet  by  sweet 
meats,  while  he  figured  as  the  dead  Caesar,  and  hi 
brother,  the  future  historian,  delivered  the  speech  oi 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


Anthony  over  his  prostrate  body.  He  was  of  a 
most  sensitive  nature,  easily  excited,  but  not  tena 
cious  of  any  irritated  feelings,  with  a  quick  sense 
of  honor,  and  the  most  entirely  truthful  child,  his 
mother  used  to  say,  that  she  had  ever  seen.  Such 
are  some  of  the  recollections  of  those  who  knew 
him  in  his  earliest  years  and  in  the  most  intimate 
relations. 

His  father's  family  was  at  this  time  living  in  the 
house  No.  7  "Walnut  Street,  looking  down  Chestnut 
Street  over  the  water  to  the  western  hills.  Near 
by,  at  the  corner  of  Beacon  Street,  was  the  residence 
of  the  family  of  the  first  Mayor  of  Boston,  and  at 
a  little  distance  from  the  opposite  corner  was  the 
house  of  one  of  the  fathers  of  New  England  manu 
facturing  enterprise,  a  man  of  superior  intellect, 
who  built  up  a  great  name  and  fortune  in  our  city. 
The  children  from  these  three  homes  naturally  be 
came  playmates.  Mr.  Motley's  house  was  a  very 
hospitable  one,  and  Lothrop  and  two  of  his  young 
companions  were  allowed  to  carry  out  their  schemes 
of  amusement  in  the  garden  and  the  garret.  If  one 
with  a  prescient  glance  could  have  looked  into  that 
garret  on  some  Saturday  afternoon  while  our  cen 
tury  was  not  far  advanced  in  its  second  score  of 
years,  he  might  have  found  three  boys  in  cloaks 
and  doublets  and  plumed  hats,  heroes  and  bandits, 
enacting  more  or  less  impromptu  melodramas.  In 


A  Memoir. 


one  of  the  boys  he  would  have  seen  the  embryo 
dramatist  of  a  nation's  life  history,  John  Lothrop 
Motley;  in  the  second,  a  famous  talker  and  wit 
who  has  spilled  more  good  things  on  the  wasteful 
air  in  conversation  than  would  carry  a  "diner- 
out  "  through  half  a  dozen  London  seasons,  and 
waked  up  somewhat  after  the  usual  flowering- 
time  of  authorship  to  find  himself  a  very  agreeable 
and  cordially  welcomed  writer,  —  Thomas  Gold 
Appleton.  In  the  third  he  would  have  recognized 
a  champion  of  liberty  known  wherever  that  word 
is  spoken,  an  orator  whom  to  hear  is  to  revive 
all  the  traditions  of  the  grace,  the  address,  the 
commanding  sway  of  the  silver-tongued  eloquence 
of  the  most  renowned  speakers,  —  Wendell  Phil 
lips. 

Both  of  young  Motley's  playmates  have  furnished 
me  with  recollections  of  him  and  of  those  around 
him  at  this  period  of  his  life,  and  I  cannot  do  bet 
ter  than  borrow  freely  from  their  communications. 
His  father  was  a  man  of  decided  character,  social, 
vivacious,  witty,  a  lover  of  books,  and  himself  not 
unknown  as  a  writer,  being  the  author  of  one  or 
more  of  the  well-remembered  "Jack  Downing" 
letters.  He  was  fond  of  having  the  boys  read  to 
him  from  such  authors  as  Channing  and  Irving, 
and  criticised  their  way  of  reading  with  discrimi 
nating  judgment  and  taste.  Mrs.  Motley  was  a 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


woman  who  could  not  be  looked  upon  without 
admiration.  I  remember  well  the  sweet  dignity  of 
her  aspect,  her  "regal  beauty,"  as  Mr.  Phillips 
truly  styles  it,  and  the  charm  of  her  serene  and 
noble  presence,  which  made  her  the  type  of  a 
perfect  motherhood.  Her  character  corresponded 
to  the  promise  of  her  gracious  aspect.  She  was 
one  of  the  fondest  of  mothers,  but  not  thought 
lessly  indulgent  to  the  boy  from  whom  she  hoped 
and  expected  more  than  she  thought  it  wise  to 
let  him  know.  The  story  used  to  be  current 
that  in  their  younger  days  this  father  and  mother 
were  the  handsomest  pair  the  town  of  Boston  could 
show.  This  son  of  theirs  was  "rather  tall,"  says 
Mr.  Phillips,  "lithe,  very  graceful  in  movement 
and  gesture,  and  there  was  something  marked  and 
admirable  in  the  set  of  his  head  on  his  shoulders," 
—  a  peculiar  elegance  which  was  most  noticeable 
in  those  later  days  when  I  knew  him.  Lady  Byron 
long  afterwards  spoke  of  him  as  more  like  her 
husband  in  appearance  than  any  other  person  she 
had  met ;  but  Mr.  Phillips,  who  remembers  the 
first  bloom  of  his  boyhood  and  youth,  thinks 
he  was  handsomer  than  any  portrait  of  Byron 
represents  the  poet.  "He  could  not  have  been 
eleven  years  old,"  says  the  same  correspondent, 
"when  he  began  writing  a  novel.  It  opened,  I 
remember,  not  with  one  solitary  horseman,  but 


A  Memoir. 


with  two,  riding  up  to  an  inn  in  the  valley  of  the 
Housatonic.  Neither  of  us  had  ever  seen  the 
Housatonic,  but  it  sounded  grand  and  romantic. 
Two  chapters  were  finished." 

There  is  not  much  remembered  of  the  single  sum 
mer  he  passed  at  Mr.  Green's  school  at  Jamaica 
Plain.  From  that  school  he  went  to  Eound  Hill, 
Northampton,  then  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Cogswell 
and  Mr.  Bancroft.  The  historian  of  the  United 
States  could  hardly  have  dreamed  that  the  hand 
some  boy  of  ten  years  old  was  to  take  his  place  at 
the  side  of  his  teacher  in  the  first  rank  of  writers  in 
his  own  department.  Motley  came  to  Eound  Hill, 
as  one  of  his  schoolmates  tells  me,  with  a  great 
reputation,  especially  as  a  declaimer.  He  had  a 
remarkable  facility  for  acquiring  languages,  excelled 
as  a  reader  and  as  a  writer,  and  was  the  object  of 
general  admiration  for  his  many  gifts.  There  is 
some  reason  to  think  that  the  flattery  he  received 
was  for  a  time  a  hindrance  to  his  progress  and  the 
development  of  his  character.  He  obtained  praise 
too  easily,  and  learned  to  trust  too  much  to  his 
genius.  He  had  everything  to  spoil  him,  —  beauty, 
precocious  intelligence,  and  a  personal  charm  which 
might  have  made  him  a  universal  favorite.  Yet  he 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  generally  popular  at 
this  period  of  his  life.  He  was  wilful,  impetuous, 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECTION  I. 
1814-1827. 


Learned 
easily. 


Studied  what 
he  chose. 


sometimes  supercilious,  always  fastidious.  He  would 
study  as  he  liked,  and  not  by  rule.  His  school  and 
college  mates  believed  in  his  great  possibilities 
through  all  his  forming  period,  but  it  may  be 
doubted  if  those  who  counted  most  confidently  on 
his  future  could  have  supposed  that  he  would  develop 
the  heroic  power  of  concentration,  the  long-breathed 
tenacity  of  purpose,  which  in  after  years  gave  effect 
to  his  brilliant  mental  endowments.  "  I  did  won 
der,"  says  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips,  "  at  the  diligence 
and  painstaking,  the  drudgery  shown  in  his  histori 
cal  works.  In  early  life  he  had  no  industry,  not 
needing  it.  All  he  cared  for  in  a  book  he  caught 
quickly,  —  the  spirit  of  it,  and  all  his  mind  needed 
or  would  use.  This  quickness  of  apprehension  was 
marvellous."  I  do  not  find  from  the  recollections 
of  his  schoolmates  at  Northampton  that  he  was 
reproached  for  any  grave  offences,  though  he  may 
have  wandered  beyond  the  prescribed  boundaries 
now  and  then,  and  studied  according  to  his  inclina 
tions  rather  than  by  rule.  While  at  that  school 
he  made  one  acquisition  much  less  common  then 
than  now,  —  a  knowledge  of  the  German  language 
and  some  degree  of  acquaintance  with  its  literature, 
under  the  guidance  of  one  of  the  few  thorough 
German  scholars  this  country  then  possessed,  Mr. 
George  Bancroft. 


A  Memoir. 


II. 

College  Life.     (1827-1831.) 

SUCH  then  was  the  boy  who  at  the  immature,  we 
might  almost  say  the  tender,  age  of  thirteen  entered 
Harvard  College.  Though  two  years  after  me  in 
college  standing,  I  remember  the  boyish  reputation 
which  he  brought  with  him,  especially  that  of  a 
wonderful  linguist,  and  the  impression  which  his 
striking  personal  beauty  produced  upon  us  as  he 
took  his  seat  in  the  college  chapel.  But  it  was  not 
until  long  after  this  period  that  I  became  intimately 
acquainted  with  him,  and  I  must  again  have  re 
course  to  the  classmates  and  friends  who  have 
favored  me  with  their  reminiscences  of  this  period 
of  his  life.  Mr.  Phillips  says :  "  During  our  first 
year  in  college,  though  the  youngest  in  the  class,  he 
stood  third,  I  think,  or  second  in  college  rank,  and 
ours  was  an  especially  able  class.  Yet  to  maintain 
this  rank  he  neither  cared  nor  needed  to  make  any 
effort.  Too  young  to  feel  any  responsibilities,  and 
not  yet  awake  to  any  ambition,  he  became  so  negli 
gent  that  he  was  'rusticated'  [that  is,  sent  away 
from  college  for  a  time].  He  came  back  sobered, 


SECTION  II. 
1827  -1831. 

College  life. 


College  rank. 


10 


John  Lotkrop  Motley. 


SECTION  II. 
1827-1831. 


College  life. 


His  manner. 


His  literary 
attempts. 


and  worked  rather  more,  but  with  no  effort  for  col 
lege  rank  thenceforward." 

I  must  finish  the  portrait  of  the  collegian  with 
all  its  lights  and  shadows  by  the  help  of  the  same 
friends  from  whom  I  have  borrowed  the  preceding 
outlines.  He  did  not  care  to  make  acquaintances, 
was  haughty  in  manner  and  cynical  in  mood,  at 
least  as  he  appeared  to  those  in  whom  he  felt  no 
special  interest.  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that 
he  was  not  a  popular  favorite,  although  recognized 
as  having  very  brilliant  qualities.  During  all  this 
period  his  mind  was  doubtless  fermenting  with  pro 
jects  which  kept  him  in  a  fevered  and  irritable 
condition.  "He  had  a  small  writing-table,"  Mr. 
Phillips  says,  "with  a  shallow  drawer;  I  have 
often  seen  it  half  full  of  sketches,  unfinished  poems, 
soliloquies,  a  scene  or  two  of  a  play,  prose  portraits 
of  some  pet  character,  etc.  These  he  would  read  to 
me,  though  he  never  volunteered  to  do  so,  and  every 
now  and  then  he  burnt  the  whole  and  began  to  fill 
the  drawer  again." 

My  friend,  Mr.  John  Osborne  Sargent,  who  was 
a  year  before  him  in  college,  says,  in  a  very  inter 
esting  letter  with  which  he  has  favored  me :  "  My 
first  acquaintance  with  him  [Motley]  was  at  Cam 
bridge,  when  he  came  from  Mr.  Cogswell's  school 
at  Round  Hill.  He  then  had  a  good  deal  of  the 
shyness  that  was  just  pronounced  enough  to  make 


A  Memoir. 


11 


him  interesting,  and  which  did  not  entirely  wear  off' 

till  he  left  college I  soon  became  acquainted 

with  him,  and  we  used  to  take  long  walks  together, 
sometimes  taxing  each  other's  memory  for  poems 
or  passages  from  poems  that  had  struck  our  fancy. 
Shelley  was  then  a  great  favorite  of  his,  and  I  re 
member  that  Praed's  verses  then  appearing  in  the 
New  Monthly  he  thought  very  clever  and  brilliant, 
and  was  fond  of  repeating  them.  You  have  for 
gotten,  or  perhaps  never  knew,  that  Motley's  first 
appearance  in  print  was  in  the  '  Collegian.'  He 
brought  me  one  day,  in  a  very  modest  mood,  a 
translation  from  Goethe,  which  I  was  most  happy 
to  oblige  him  by  inserting.  It  was  very  prettily 
done,  and  will  now  be  a  curiosity.  ....  How  it 
happened  that  Motley  wrote  only  one  piece  I  do 
not  remember.  I  had  the  pleasure  about  that  time 
of  initiating  him  as  a  member  of  the  Knights  of  the 
Square  Table,  —  always  my  favorite  college  club, 
for  the  reason,  perhaps,  that  I  was  a  sometime 
Grand  Master.  He  was  always  a  genial  and  jovial 
companion  at  our  supper-parties  at  Fresh  Pond  and 
Gallagher's." 

We  who  live  in  the  days  of  photographs  know 
how  many  faces  belong  to  every  individual  We 
know  too  under  what  different  aspects  the  same 
character  appears  to  those  who  study  it  from  dif 
ferent  points  of  view  and  with  different  preposses- 


SECTION  II. 
1827-1831. 


College  life. 


His  poetical 
favorites. 


His  first  ap 
pearance  in 
print. 


12 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECTION  II. 
1827-1831. 


College  life. 


Not  particu 
lar  as  to 
dress. 


A  different 
account. 


The  accounts 
reconciled. 


sions.  I  do  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  place  side  by 
side  the  impressions  of  two  of  his  classmates  as  to 
one  of  his  personal  traits  as  they  observed  him  at 
this  period  of  his  youth. 

"  He  was  a  manly  boy,  with  no  love  for  or  lean 
ing  to  girls'  company ;  no  care  for  dress ;  not  a  trace 

of  personal  vanity He  was,  or  at  least  seemed, 

wholly  unconscious  of  his  rare  beauty  and  of  the 
fascination  of  his  manner ;  not  a  trace  of  pretence, 
the  simplest  and  most  natural  creature  in  the 
world." 

Look  on  that  picture  and  on  this  : 

"  He  seemed  to  have  a  passion  for  dress.  But  as 
in  everything  else,  so  in  this,  his  fancy  was  a  fitful 
one.  At  one  time  he  would  excite  our  admiration 
by  the  splendor  of  his  outfit,  and  perhaps  the  next 
week  he  would  'seem  to  take  equal  pleasure  in  his 
slovenly  or  careless  appearance." 

It  is  not  very  difficult  to  reconcile  these  two  por 
traitures.  I  recollect  it  was  said  by  a  witty  lady  of 
a  handsome  clergyman  well  remembered  among  us, 
that  he  had  dressy  eyes.  Motley  so  well  became 
everything  he  wore,  that  if  he  had  sprung  from  his 
bed  and  slipped  his  clothes  on  at  an  alarm  of  fire, 
his  costume  would  have  looked  like  a  prince's  un 
dress.  His  natural  presentment,  like  that  of  Count 
D'Orsay,  was  of  the  kind  which  suggests  the  inten 
tional  effects  of  an  elaborate  toilet,  no  matter  how 


A  Memoir. 


13 


little  thought  or  care  may  have  been  given  to  make 
it  effective.  I  think  the  "  passion  for  dress  "  was 
really  only  a  seeming,  and  that  he  often  excited 
admiration  when  he  had  not  taken  half  the  pains 
to  adorn  himself  that  many  a  youth  less  favored  by 
nature  has  wasted  upon  his  unblest  exterior  only  to 
be  laughed  at: 

I  gather  some  other  interesting  facts  from  a  letter 
which  I  have  received  from  his  early  playmate  and 
school  and  college  classmate,  Mr.  T.  G.  Appleton. 

"  In  his  Sophomore  year  he  kept  abreast  of  the 
prescribed  studies,  but  his  heart  was  out  of  bounds, 
as  it  often  had  been  at  Eound  Hill  when  chasing 
squirrels  or  rabbits  through  forbidden  forests.  Al 
ready  his  historical  interest  was  shaping  his  life. 
A  tutor  coming  —  by  chance,  let  us  hope  —  to  his 
room,  remonstrated  with  him  upon  the  heaps  of 
novels  upon  his  table. 

"  'Yes,'  said  Motley, '  I  am  reading  historically,  and 
have  come  to  the  novels  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Taken  in  the  lump,  they  are  very  hard  reading.' " 

All  Old  Cambridge  people  know  the  Brattle 
House,  with  its  gambrel  roof,  its  tall  trees,  its  per 
ennial  spring,  its  legendary  fame  of  good  fare  and 
hospitable  board  in  the  days  of  the  kindly  old  Ion 
vivant,  Major  Brattle.  In  this  house  the  two  young 
students,  Appleton  and  Motley,  lived  during  a  part 
of  their  college  course. 


SECTION  II. 
1827-1831. 


College  life. 


Novel-read 
ing. 


Room  at  the 
"  Brattle 
House." 


14 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


"  Motley's  room  was  on  the  ground  floor,  the 
room  to  the  left  of  the  entrance.  He  led  a  very 
pleasant  life  there,  tempering  his  college  duties 
with  the  literature  he  loved,  and  receiving  his 
friends  amidst  elegant  surroundings,  which  added 
to  the  charm  of  his  society.  Occasionally  we 
amused  ourselves  by  writing  for  the  magazines  and 
papers  of  the  day.  Mr.  Willis  had  just  started 
a  slim  monthly,  written  chiefly  by  himself,  but  with 
the  true  magazine  flavor.  We  wrote  for  that,  and 
sometimes  verses  in  the  corner  of  a  paper  called  the 
Anti-Masonic  Mirror,  and  in  which  corner  was  a 
woodcut  of  Apollo,  and  inviting  to  destruction  am 
bitious  youths  by  the  legend  underneath, 

'  Much  yet  remains  unsung. ' 

These  pieces  were  usually  dictated  to  each  other, 
the  poet  recumbent  upon  the  bed  and  a  classmate 
ready  to  carry  off  the  manuscript  for  the  paper  of 
the  following  day.  Blackwood's  was  then  in  its 
glory,  its  pages  redolent  of  'mountain  dew '  in  every 
sense ;  the  humor  of  the  Shepherd,  the  elegantly 
brutal  onslaughts  upon  Whigs  and  Cockney  poets 
by  Christopher  North,  intoxicated  us  youths. 

"  It  was  young  writing,  and  made  for  the  young. 
The  opinions  were  charmingly  wrong,  and  its  en 
thusiasm  was  half  Glenlivet.  But  this  delighted 
the  boys.  There  were  no  reprints  then,  and  to  pass 


A  Memoir. 


15 


the  paper-cutter  up  the  fresh  inviting  pages  was 
like  swinging  over  the  heather  arm  in  arm  with 
Christopher  himself.  It  is  a  little  singular  that 
though  we  had  a  college  magazine  of  our  own, 
Motley  rarely  if  ever  wrote  for  it.  I  remember  a 
translation  from  Goethe,  'The  Ghost-Seer,'  which 
he  may  have  written  for  it,  and  a  poem  upon  the 
White  Mountains.  Motley  spoke  at  one  of  the 
college  exhibitions  an  essay  on  Goethe  so  excellent 
that  Mr.  Joseph  Cogswell  sent  it  to  Madam  Goethe, 
who,  after  reading  it,  said,  '  I  wish  to  see  the  first 
book  that  young  man  will  write.'  " 

Although  Motley  did  not  aim  at  or  attain  a  high 
college  rank,  the  rules  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
Society,  which  confine  the  number  of  members  to 
the  first  sixteen  of  each  class,  were  stretched  so  as 
to  include  him,  —  a  tribute  to  his  recognized  ability, 
and  an  evidence  that  a  distinguished  future  was 
anticipated  for  him. 


SECTION  II. 
1827-1831. 


College  life. 


Writes 
poems. 


Writes  an 
essay  on 
Goethe. 


16 


John  Lothrop  Motley, 


III. 

Study  and  Travel  in  Europe.     (1832-1833.') 

OF  the  two  years  divided  between  the  Universi 
ties  of  Berlin  and  Gottingen  I  have  little  to  record. 
That  he  studied  hard  I  cannot  doubt ;  that  he  found 
himself  in  pleasant  social  relations  with  some  of 
his  fellow-students  seems  probable  from  the  por 
traits  he  has  drawn  in  his  first  story,  "Morton's 
Hope,"  and  is  rendered  certain  so  far  as  one  of  his 
companions  is  concerned.  Among  the  records  of 
the  past  to  which  he  referred  during  his  last  visit 
to  this  country  was  a  letter  which  he  took  from  a 
collection  of  papers  and  handed  me  to  read  one 
day  when  I  was  visiting  him.  The  letter  was 
written  in  a  very  lively  and  exceedingly  familiar 
vein.  It  implied  such  intimacy,  and  called  up  in 
such  a  lively  way  the  gay  times  Motley  and  him 
self  had  had  together  in  their  youthful  days,  that  I 
was  puzzled  to  guess  who  could  have  addressed 
him  from  Germany  in  that  easy  and  offhand  fash 
ion.  I  knew  most  of  his  old  friends  who  'would 
be  likely  to  call  him  by  his  baptismal  name  in  its 


A  Memoir. 


17 


most  colloquial  form,  and  exhausted  my  stock 
of  guesses  unsuccessfully  before  looking  at  the 
signature.  I  confess  that  I  was  surprised,  after 
laughing  at  the  hearty  and  almost  boyish  tone  of 
the  letter,  to  read  at  the  bottom  of  the  page  the 
signature  of  Bismarck.  I  will  not  say  that  I  sus 
pect  Motley  of  having  drawn  the  portrait  of  his 
friend  in  one  of  the  characters  of  "Morton's 
Hope,"  but  it  is  not  hard  to  point  out  traits  in  one 
of  them  which  we  can  believe  may  have  belonged 
to  the  great  Chancellor  at  an  earlier  period  of  life 
than  that  at  which  the  world  contemplates  his  over 
shadowing  proportions. 

Hoping  to  learn  something  of  Motley  during  the 
two  years  while  we  had  lost  sight  of  him,  I  ad 
dressed  a  letter  to  His  Highness  Prince  Bismarck, 
to  which  I  received  the  following  reply :  — 

FOREIGN  OFFICE,  BERLIN,  March  11,  1878. 
SIR,  —  I  am  directed  by  Prince  Bismarck  to  ac 
knowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  1st  of 
January,  relating  to  the  biography  of  the  late  Mr. 
Motley.  His  Highness  deeply  regrets  that  the 
state  of  his  health  and  pressure  of  business  do  not 
allow  him  to  contribute  personally,  and  as  largely 
as  he  would  be  delighted  to  do,  to  your  depicting 
of  a  friend  whose  memory  will  be  ever  dear  to  him. 
Since  I  had  the  pleasure  of  making  the  acquaint- 


SECTION  III. 
1832-1833. 


Bismarck. 


Note  from 
his  secretary. 


18 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


ance  of  Mr.  Motley  at  Varzin,  I  have  been  intrusted 
with  communicating  to  you  a  few  details  I  have 
gathered  from  the  mouth  of  the  Prince.  I  enclose 
them  as  they  are  jotted  down,  without  any  attempt 
of  digestion. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be 

Your  obedient  servant, 

LOTHAIR  BUCHER. 

"  Prince  Bismarck  said :  — 

" '  I  met  Motley  at  Gottingen  in  1832, 1  am  not 
sure  if  at  the  beginning  of  Easter  Term  or  Michael 
mas  Term.  He  kept  company  with  German  stu 
dents,  though  more  addicted  to  study  than  we 
members  of  the  fighting  clubs  (:  corps :).  Although 
not  having  mastered  yet  the  German  language,  he 
exercised  a  marked  attraction  by  a  conversation 
sparkling  with  wit,  humor,  and  originality.  In 
autumn  of  1833,  having  both  of  us  migrated  from 
Gottingen  to  Berlin  for  the  prosecution  of  our 
studies,  we  became  fellow-lodgers  in  the  house 
No.  161  Friedrich  Strasse.  There  we  lived  in  the 
closest  intimacy,  sharing  meals  and  outdoor  exercise. 
Motley  by  that  time  had  arrived  at  talking  German 
fluently ;  he  occupied  himself  not  only  in  translat 
ing  Goethe's  poem  "  Faust,"  but  tried  his  hand  even 
in  composing  German  verses.  Enthusiastic  ad 
mirer  of  Shakespeare,  Byron,  Goethe,  he  used  to 


A  Memoir. 


19 


spice  his  conversation  abundantly  with  quotations 
from  these  his  favorite  authors.  A  pertinacious 
arguer,  so  much  so  that  sometimes  he  watched  my 
awakening  in  order  to  continue  a  discussion  on 
some  topic  of  science,  poetry,  or  practical  life,  cut 
short  by  the  chime  of  the  small  hours,  he  never 
lost  his  mild  and  amiable  temper.  Our  faithful 
confpanion  was  Count  Alexander  Keyserling,  a  na 
tive  of  Courland,  who  has  since  achieved  distinction 
as  a  botanist. 

" '  Motley  having  entered  the  diplomatic  service  of 
his  country,  we  had  frequently  the  opportunity  of 
renewing  our  friendly  intercourse ;  at  Frankfurt  he 
used  to  stay  with  me,  the  welcome  guest  of  my 
wife ;  we  also  met  at  Vienna,  and,  later,  here.  The 
last  time  I  saw  him  was  in  1872  at  Varzin,  at  the 
celebration  of  my  "silver  wedding,"  namely,  the 
twenty-fifth  anniversary. 

" '  The  most  striking  feature  of  his  handsome  and 
delicate  appearance  was  uncommonly  large  and 
beautiful  eyes.  He  never  entered  a  drawing-room 
without  exciting  the  curiosity  and  sympathy  of  the 
ladies.' " 

It  is  but  a  glimpse  of  their  young  life  which  the 
great  statesman  gives  us,  but  a  bright  and  pleasing 
one.  Here  were  three  students,  one  of  whom  was 
to  range  in  the  flowery  fields  of  the  loveliest  of  the 


20 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECTION  III. 
1832-1833. 


sciences,  another  to  make  the  dead  past  live  over 
again  in  his  burning  pages,  and  a  third  to  extend 
an  empire,  as  the  botanist  spread  out  a  plant  and 
the  historian  laid  open  a  manuscript.- 


A  Memoir. 


21 


IV. 


Return  to  America.  —  Study  of  Law.  —  Marriage.  — 
His  first  Novel,  "Morton's  Hope."     (1834-1839.) 

OF  the  years  passed  in  the  study  of  Law  after 
his  return  from  Germany  I  have  very  little  recol 
lection,  and  nothing  of  importance  to  record.  He 
never  became  seriously  engaged  in  the  practice  of 
the  profession  he  had  chosen.  I  had  known  him 
pleasantly  rather  than  intimately,  and  our  different 
callings  tended  to  separate  us.  I  met  him,  how 
ever,  not  very  rarely,  at  one  house  where  we  were 
both  received  with  the  greatest  cordiality,  and 
where  the  attractions  brought  together  many  both 
young  and  old  to  enjoy  the  society  of  its  charm 
ing  and  brilliant  inmates.  This  was  at  No.  14 
Temple  Place,  where  Mr.  Park  Benjamin  was  then 
living  with  his  two  sisters,  both  in  the  bloom  of 
young  womanhood.  Here  Motley  found  the  wife 
to  whom  his  life  owed  so  much  of  its  success  and 
its  happiness.  Those  who  remember  Mary  Ben 
jamin  find  it  hard  to  speak  of  her  in  the  com 
mon  terms  of  praise  which  they  award  to  the  good 
and  the  lovely.  She  was  not  only  handsome  and 


SECTION  IV. 
1834-1839. 


My  acquaint 
ance  with 
him* 


The  house 
where  he 
was  often 
to  be  met. 


22 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECTION  IV. 
1834-1839. 


His  marriage, 


His  first 
novel. 


amiable  and  agreeable,  but  there  was  a  cordial 
frankness,  an  open-hearted  sincerity  about  her 
which  made  her  seem  like  a  sister  to  those  who 
could  help  becoming  her  lovers.  She  stands  quite 
apart  in  the  memory  of  the  friends  who  knew  her 
best,  even  from  the  circle  of  young  persons  whose 
recollections  they  most  cherish.  Yet  hardly  could 
one  of  them  have  foreseen  all  that  she  was  to  be 
to  him  whose  life  she  was  to  share.  They  were 
married  on  the  2d  of  March,  1837.  His  intimate 
friend,  Mr.  Joseph  Lewis  Stackpole,  was  married 
at  about  the  same  time  to  her  sister,  thus  joining 
still  more  closely  in  friendship  the  two  young  men 
who  were  already  like  brothers  in  their  mutual 
affection. 

Two  years  after  his  marriage,  in  1839,  appeared 
his  first  work,  a  novel  in  two  volumes,  called 
"  Morton's  Hope."  He  had  little  reason  to  be 
gratified  with  its  reception.  The  general  verdict 
was  not  favorable  to  it,  and  the  leading  critical 
journal  of  America,  not  usually  harsh  or  cynical  in 
its  treatment  of  native  authorship,  did  not  even 
give  it  a  place  among  its  "  Critical  Notices,"  but 
dropped  a  small-print  extinguisher  upon  it  in  one 
of  the  pages  of  its  "List  of  New  Publications." 
Nothing  could  be  more  utterly  disheartening  than 
the  unqualified  condemnation  passed  upon  the 
story.  At  the  same  time  the  critic  says  that  "  no 


A  Memoir, 


23 


one  can  read  '  Morton's  Hope '  without  perceiving 
it  to  have  been  written  by  a  person  of  uncommon 
resources  of  mind  and  scholarship." 

It  must  be  confessed  that,  as  a  story,  "  Morton's 
Hope  "  cannot  endure  a  searching  or  even  a  moder 
ately  careful  criticism.  It  is  wanting  in  cohesion, 
in  character,  even  in  a  proper  regard  to  circum 
stances  of  time  and  place ;  it  is  a  map  of  dissected 
incidents  which  has  been  flung  out  of  its  box  and 
has  arranged  itself  without  the  least  regard  to  chro 
nology  or  geography.  It  is  not  difficult  to  trace 
in  it  many  of  the  influences  which  had  helped  in 
forming  or  deforming  the  mind  of  the  young  man 
of  twenty-five,  not  yet  come  into  possession  of  his 
full  inheritance  of  the  slowly  ripening  qualities 
which  were  yet  to  assert  their  robust  independence. 
How  could  he  help  admiring  Byron  and  falling 
into  more  or  less  unconscious  imitation  of  his 
moods  if  not  of  his  special  affectations  ?  Passion 
showing  itself  off  against  a  dark  foil  of  cynicism ; 
sentiment,  ashamed  of  its  own  self-betrayal,  and 
sneering  at  itself  from  time  to  time  for  fear  of  the 
laugh  of  the  world  at  its  sincerity, —  how  many 
young  men  were  spoiled  and  how  many  more  in 
jured  by  becoming  bad  copies  of  a  bad  ideal !  The 
blood  of  Don  Juan  ran  in  the  veins  of  Vivian  Grey 
and  of  Pelham.  But  if  we  read  the  fantastic  dreams 
of  Disraeli,  the  intellectual  dandyisms  of  Bulwer 


SECTION  IV. 
1839. 


Morton's 
Hope." 


John  Lolhrop  Motley. 


remembering  the  after  careers  of  which  these  were 
the  preludes,  we  can  understand  how  there  might 
well  be  something  in  those  earlier  efforts  which 
would  betray  itself  in  the  way  of  thought  and  in 
the  style  of  the  young  men  who  read  them  during 
the  plastic  period  of  their  minds  and  characters. 
Allow  for  all  these  influences,  allow  for  whatever 
impressions  his  German  residence  and  his  familiar 
ity  with  German  literature  had  produced;  accept 
the  fact  that  the  story  is  to  the  last  degree  dis 
jointed,  improbable,  impossible ;  lay  it  aside  as  a 
complete  failure  in  what  it  attempted  to  be,  and 
read  it,  as  "  Vivian  Grey  "  is  now  read,  in  the  light 
of  the  career  which  it  heralded. 

"  Morton's  Hope  "  is  not  to  be  read  as  a  novel :  it 
is  to  be  studied  as  an  autobiography,  a  prophecy, 
a  record  of  aspirations,  disguised  under  a  series  of 
incidents  which  are  flung  together  with  no  more 
regard  to  the  unities  than  a  pack  of  shuffled  play 
ing-cards.  I  can  do  nothing  better  than  let  him 
picture  himself,  for  it  is  impossible  not  to  recog 
nize  the  portrait  It  is  of  little  consequence 
whether  every  trait  is  an  exact  copy  from  his  own 
features,  but  it  is  so  obvious  that  many  of  the  lines 
are  direct  transcripts  from  nature  that  we  may  be 
lieve  the  same  thing  of  many  others.  Let  us  com 
pare  his  fictitious  hero's  story  with  what  we  have 
read  of  his  own  life. 


A  Memoir. 


25 


In  early  boyhood  Morton  amused  himself  and 
astonished  those  about  him  by  enacting  plays  for  a 
puppet  theatre.  This  was  at  six  years  old,  and  at 
twelve  we  find  him  acting  in  a  play  with  other 
boys,  just  as  Motley's  playmates  have  already  de 
scribed  him.  The  hero  may  now  speak  for  himself, 
but  we  shall  all  perceive  that  we  are  listening  to 
the  writer's  own  story. 

"  I  was  always  a  huge  reader ;  my  mind  was 
essentially  craving  and  insatiable.  Its  appetite 
was  enormous,  and  it  devoured  too  greedily  for 
health.  I  rejected  all  guidance  in  my  studies.  I 
already  fancied  myself  a  misanthrope.  I  had  taken 
a  step  very  common  for  boys  of  my  age,  and  strove 
with  all  my  might  to  be  a  cynic." 

He  goes  on  to  describe,  under  the  perfectly  trans 
parent  mask  of  his  hero,  the  course  of  his  studies. 
"  To  poetry,  like  most  infants,  I  devoted  most  of 
my  time."  From  modern  poetry  he  went  back  to 
the  earlier  sources,  first  with  the  idea  of  systematic 
reading  and  at  last  through  Chaucer  and  Gower 
and  early  ballads,  until  he  lost  himself  "  in  a  dis 
mal  swamp  of  barbarous  romances  and  lying  Latin 
chronicles.  I  got  hold  of  the  Bibliotheca  Mo- 
nastica,  containing  a  copious  account  of  Anglo- 
Norman  authors,  with  notices  of  their  works,  and 
set  seriously  to  reading  every  one  of  them."  One 
profit  of  his  antiquarianism,  however,  was,  as  he 


SECTION  IV. 
1839. 


"  Morton1! 
Hope." 


Describes 
himself. 


His  hunger 
for  knowl 
edge. 


His  study  of 
old  authors. 


26 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECTION  IV. 
1839. 

"  Morton's 
Hope." 


Describes 
liis  own 
character. 


Takes  to  the 
study  of 
history. 


says,  his  attention  to  foreign  languages,  —  French 
Spanish,  German,  especially  in  their  earliest  and 
rudest  forms  of  literature.  From  these  he  ascended 
to  the  ancient  poets,  and  from  Latin  to  Greek.  He 
would  have  taken  up  the  study  of  the  Oriental 
languages,  but  for  the  advice  of  a  relative,  who 
begged  him  seriously  to  turn  his  attention  to  his 
tory.  The  paragraph  which  follows  must  speak  for 
itself  as  a  true  record  under  a  feigned  heading. 

"The  groundwork  of  my  early  character  was 
plasticity  and  fickleness.  I  was  mortified  by  this 
exposure  of  my  ignorance,  and  disgusted  with  my 
former  course  of  reading.  I  now  set  myself  vio 
lently  to  the  study  of  history.  With  my  turn  of 
mind,  and  with  the  preposterous  habits  which  I 
had  been  daily  acquiring,  I  could  not  fail  to  make 
as  gross  mistakes  in  the  pursuit  of  this  as  of  other 
branches  of  knowledge.  I  imagined,  on  setting  out, 
a  system  of  strict  and  impartial  investigation  of  the 
sources  of  history.  I  was  inspired  with  the  absurd 
ambition,  not  uncommon  to  youthful  students,  of 
knowing  as  much  as  their  masters.  I  imagined  it 
necessary  for  me,  stripling  as  I  was,  to  study  the 
authorities ;  and,  imbued  with  the  strict  necessity 
of  judging  for  myself,  I  turned  from  the  limpid 
pages  of  the  modern  historians  to  the  notes  and 
authorities  at  the  bottom  of  the  page.  These,  of 
course,  sent  me  back  to  my  monastic  acquaintances, 


A  Memoir. 


27 


and  I  again  found  myself  in  such  congenial  com 
pany  to  a  youthful  and  ardent  mind  as  Florence  of 
Worcester  and  Simeon  of  Durham,  the  Venerable 
Bede  and  Matthew  Paris;  and  so  on  to  Gregory 
and  Fredegarius,  down  to  the  more  modern  and 
elegant  pages  of  Froissart,  Hollinshed,  Hooker,  and 
Stowe.  Infant  as  I  was,  I  presumed  to  grapple 
with  masses  of  learning  almost  beyond  the  strength 
of  the  giants  of  history.  A  spendthrift  of  my  time 
and  labor,  I  went  out  of  my  way  to  collect  ma 
terials,  and  to  build  for  myself,  when  I  should  have 
known  that  older  and  abler  architects  had  already 
appropriated  all  that  was  worth  preserving;  that 
the  edifice  was  built,  the  quarry  exhausted,  and  that 
I  was,  consequently,  only  delving  amidst  rubbish. 

"  This  course  of  study  was  not  absolutely  with 
out  its  advantages.  The  mind  gained  a  certain 
proportion  of  vigor  even  by  this  exercise  of  its  fac 
ulties,  just  as  my  bodily  health  would  have  been 
improved  by  transporting  the  refuse  ore  of  a  mine 
from  one  pit  to  another,  instead  of  coining  the 
ingots  which  lay  heaped  before  my  eyes.  Still, 
however,  my  time  was  squandered.  There  was  a 
constant  want  of  fitness  and  concentration  of  my 
energies.  My  dreams  of  education  were  boundless, 
brilliant,  indefinite ;  but  alas !  they  were  only 
dreams.  There  was  nothing  accurate  and  defined 
in  my  future  course  of  life.  I  was  ambitious  and 


28 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


conceited,  but  my  aspirations  were  vague  and  shape 
less.  I  had  crowded  together  the  most  gorgeous 
and  even  some  of  the  most  useful  and  durable  ma 
terials  for  my  woof,  but  I  had  no  pattern,  and  con 
sequently  never  began  to  weave. 

"  I  had  not  made  the  discovery  that  an  individ 
ual  cannot  learn,  nor  be,  everything;  that  the 
world  is  a  factory  in  which  each  individual  must 
perform  his  portion  of  work :  — happy  enough  if  he 
can  choose  it  according  to  his  taste  and  talent,  but 
must  renounce  the  desire  of  observing  or  superin 
tending  the  whole  operation 

"  From  studying  and  investigating  the  sources  of 
history  with  my  own  eyes,  I  went  a  step  further ; 
I  refused  the  guidance  of  modern  writers ;  and  pro 
ceeding  from  one  point  of  presumption  to  another, 
I  came  to  the  magnanimous  conviction  that  I  could 
not  know  history  as  I  ought  to  know  it  unless  I 
wrote  it  for  myself.  .... 

"  It  would  be  tedious  and  useless  to  enlarge  upon 
my  various  attempts  and  various  failures.  I  for 
bear  to  comment  upon  mistakes  which  I  was  in 
time  wise  enough  to  retrieve.  Pushing  out  as  I 
did,  without  compass  and  without  experience,  on 
the  boundless  ocean  of  learning,  what  could  I  ex 
pect  but  an  utter  and  a  hopeless  shipwreck  ? 

"  Thus  I  went  on,  becoming  more  learned,  and 
therefore  more  ignorant,  more  confused  in  my  brain, 


A  Memoir. 


29 


and  more  awkward  in  my  habits,  from  day  to  day. 
I  was  ever  at  my  studies,  and  could  hardly  be  pre 
vailed  upon  to  allot  a  moment  to  exercise  or  rec 
reation.  I  breakfasted  with  a  pen  behind  my  ear, 
and  dined  in  company  with  a  folio  bigger  than  the 
table.  I  became  solitary  and  morose,  the  necessary 
consequence  of  reckless  study ;  talked  impatiently 
of  the  value  of  my  time,  and  the  immensity  of  my 
labors ;  spoke  contemptuously  of  the  learning  and 
acquirements  of  the  whole  world,  and  threw  out 
mysterious  hints  of  the  magnitude  and  importance 
of  my  own  projects. 

"  In  the  midst  of  all  this  study  and  this  infant 
authorship  the  perusal  of  such  masses  of  poetry 
could  not  fail  to  produce  their  effect.  Of  a  youth 
whose  mind,  like  mine  at  that  period,  possessed 
some  general  capability,  without  perhaps  a  single 
prominent  and  marked  talent,  a  proneness  to  imita 
tion  is  sure  to  be  the  besetting  sin.  I  consequently, 
for  a  large  portion  of  my  earlier  life,  never  read  a 
work  which  struck  my  fancy,  without  planning  a 
better  one  upon  its  model ;  for  my  ambition,  like 
my  vanity,  knew  no  bounds.  It  was  a  matter  of 
course  that  I  should  be  attacked  by  the  poetic 
mania.  I  took  the  infection  at  the  usual  time, 
went  through  its  various  stages,  and  recovered  as 
soon  as  could  be  expected.  I  discovered  soon 
enough  that  emulation  is  not  capability,  and  he  is 


30 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


fortunate  to  whom  is  soonest  revealed  the  relative 
extent  of  his  ambition  and  his  powers. 

"My  ambition  was  boundless;  my  dreams  of  glory 
were  not  confined  to  authorship  and  literature 
alone ;  but  every  sphere  in  which  the  intellect  of 
man  exerts  itself  revolved  in  a  blaze  of  light  before 
me.  And  there  I  sat  in  my  solitude  and  dreamed 
such  wondrous  dreams !  Events  were  thickening 
around  me  which  were  soon  to  change  the  world,  — 
but  they  were  unmarked  by  me.  The  country  was 
changing  to  a  mighty  theatre,  on  whose  stage  those 
who  were  as  great  as  I  fancied  myself  to  be  were  to 
enact  a  stupendous  drama  in  which  I  had  no  part. 
I  saw  it  not ;  I  knew  it  not ;  and  yet  how  infinitely 
beautiful  were  the  imaginations  of  my  solitude ! 
Fancy  shook  her  kaleidoscope  each  moment  as 
chance  directed,  and  lo  !  what  new,  fantastic,  brill 
iant,  but  what  unmeaning  visions.  My  ambitious 
anticipations  were  as  boundless  as  they  were  various 
and  conflicting.  There  was  not  a  path  which  leads 
to  glory  in  which  I  was  not  destined  to  gather 
laurels.  As  a  wrarrior  I  would  conquer  and  over 
run  the  world.  As  a  statesman  I  would  reorganize 
and  govern  it.  As  a  historian  I  would  consign  it 
all  to  immortality ;  and  in  my  leisure  moments  I 
would  be  a  great  poet  and  a  man  of  the  world. 

"  In  short,  I  \vas  already  enrolled  in  that  large 
category  of  what  are  called  young  men  of  genius,  — 


A  Memoir. 


31 


men  who  are  the  pride  of  their  sisters  and  the  glory 
of  their  grandmothers, — men  of  whom  unheard-of 
things  are  expected,  till  after  long  preparation 
conies  a  portentous  failure,  and  then  they  are  for 
gotten  ;  subsiding  into  indifferent  apprentices  and 
attorneys'  clerks. 

"  Alas  for  the  golden  imaginations  of  our  youth ! 
They  are  bright  and  beautiful,  but  they  fade.  They 
glitter  brightly  enough  to  deceive  the  wisest  and 
most  cautious,  and  we  garner  them  up  in  the  most 
secret  caskets  of  our  hearts ;  but  are  they  not  like 
the  coins  which  the  Dervise  gave  the  merchant  in 
the  story  ?  When  we  look  for  them  the  next  morn 
ing,  do  we  not  find  them  withered  leaves  ? " 

The  ideal  picture  just  drawn  is  only  a  fuller  por 
traiture  of  the  youth  whose  outlines  have  been 
already  sketched  by  the  companions  of  his  earlier 
years.  If  his  hero  says,  "  I  breakfasted  with  a  pen 
behind  my  ear  and  dined  in  company  with  a  folio 
bigger  than  the  table,"  one  of  his  family  says  of  the 
boy  Motley  that  "  if  there  were  five  minutes  before 
dinner,  when  he  came  into  the  parlor  he  always 
took  up  some  book  near  at  hand  and  began  to  read 
until  dinner  was  announced."  The  same  unbounded 
thirst  for  knowledge, :  the  same  history  of  various 
attempts  and  various  failures,  the  same  ambition, 
not  yet  fixed  in  its  aim,  but  showing  itself  in  rest- 


32 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


less  effort,  belong  to  the  hero  of  the  story  and  its 
narrator. 

Let  no  man  despise  the  first  efforts  of  immature 
genius.  Nothing  can  be  more  crude  as  a  novel, 
nothing  more  disappointing,  than  "  Morton's  Hope." 
But  in  no  other  of  Motley's  writings  do  we  get  such 
an  inside  view  of  his  character  with  its  varied  im 
pulses,  its  capricious  appetites,  its  unregulated  forces, 
its  impatient  grasp  for  all  kinds  of  knowledge. 
With  all  his  university  experiences  at  home  and 
abroad,  it  might  be  said  with  a  large  measure  of 
truth  that  he  was  a  self-educated  man,  as  he  had 
been  a  self-taught  boy.  His  instincts  were  too 
powerful  to  let  him  work  quietly  in  the  common 
round  of  school  and  college  training.  Looking  at 
him  as  his  companions  describe  him,  as  he  delineates 
himself  mutato  nomine,  the  chances  of  success  would 
have  seemed  to  all  but  truly  prophetic  eyes  very 
doubtful,  if  not  decidedly  against  him.  Too  many 
brilliant  young  novel-readers  and  lovers  of  poetry, 
excused  by  their  admirers  for  their  shortcomings 
on  the  strength  of  their  supposed  birthright  of  "gen 
ius,"  have  ended  where  they  began ;  flattered  into 
the  vain  belief  that  they  were  men  at  eighteen  or 
twenty,  and  finding  out  at  fifty  that  they  were  and 
always  had  been  nothing  more  than  boys.  It  was 
but  a  tangled  skein  of  life  that  Motley's  book 
showed  us  at  twenty-five,  and  older  men  might 


A  Memoir. 


33 


well  have  doubted  whether  it  would  ever  be  wound 
off  in  any  continuous  thread.  To  repeat  his  own 
words,  he  had  crowded  together  the  materials  for 
his  work,  but  he  had  no  pattern,  and  consequently 
never  began  to  weave. 

The  more  this  first  work  of  Motley's  is  examined, 
the  more  are  its  faults  as  a  story  and  its  interest  as 
a  self-revelation  made  manifest  to  the  reader.  The 
future  historian,  who  spared  no  pains  to  be  accurate, 
falls  into  the  most  extraordinary  anachronisms  in 
almost  every  chapter.  Brutus  in  a  bob-wig,  Othello 
in  a  swallow-tail  coat,  could  hardly  be  more  incon 
gruously  equipped  than  some  of  his  characters  in 
the  manner  of  thought,  the  phrases,  the  way  of 
bearing  themselves  which  belong  to  them  in  the 
tale,  but  never  could  have  belonged  to  characters 
of  our  Eevolutionary  period.  He  goes  so  far  in  his 
carelessness  as  to  mix  up  dates  in  such  a  way  as 
almost  to  convince  us  that  he  never  looked  over 
his  own  manuscript  or  proofs.  His  hero  is  in 
Prague  in  June,  1777,  reading  a  letter  received 
from  America  in  less  than  a  fortnight  from  the  date 
of  its  being  written ;  in  August  of  the  same  year 
he  is  in  the  American  camp,  where  he  is  found 
in  the  company  of  a  certain  Colonel  Waldron,  an 
officer  of  some  standing  in  the  Eevolutionary  Army, 
with  whom  he  is  said  to  have  been  constantly  asso 
ciated  for  some  three  months,  having  arrived  in 


34 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


America,  as  he  says,  on  the  15th  of  May,  that  is 
to  say,  six  weeks  or  more  before  he  sailed,  accord 
ing  to  his  previous  account.  Bohemia  seems  to 
have  bewitched  his  chronology  as  it  did  Shake 
speare's  geography.  To  have  made  his  story  a 
consistent  series  of  contradictions,  Morton  should 
have  sailed  from  that  Bohemian  seashore  which 
may  be  found  in  "  A  Winter's  Tale,"  but  not  in  the 
map  of  Europe. 

And  yet  in  the  midst  of  all  these  marks  of  haste 
and  negligence,  here  and  there  the  philosophical 
student  of  history  betrays  himself,  the  ideal  of  noble 
achievement  glows  in  an  eloquent  paragraph,  or  is 
embodied  in  a  loving  portrait  like  that  of  the  pro 
fessor  and  historian  Harlem.  The  novel,  taken  in 
connection  with  the  subsequent  developments  of  the 
writer's  mind,  is  a  study  of  singular  interest.  It  is 
a  chaos  before  the  creative  epoch ;  the  light  has  not 
been  divided  from  the  darkness  ;  the  firmament  has 
not  yet  divided  the  waters  from  the  waters.  The 
forces  at  work  in  a  human  intelligence  to  bring 
harmony  out  of  its  discordant  movements  are  as 
mysterious,  as  miraculous,  we  might  truly  say,  as 
those  which  give  shape  and  order  to  the  confused 
materials  out  of  which  habitable  worlds  are  evolved. 
It  is  too  late  now  to  be  sensitive  over  this  un 
successful  attempt  as  a  story  and  unconscious  suc 
cess  as  a  self-portraiture.  The  first  sketches  of  Paul 


A  Memoir. 


35 


Veronese,  the  first  patterns  of  the  Gobelin  tapestry, 
are  not  to  be  criticised  for  the  sake  of  pointing  out 
their  inevitable  and  too  manifest  imperfections. 
They  are  to  be  carefully  studied  as  the  earliest 
efforts  of  the  hand  which  painted  the  Marriage  at 
Caiia,  of  the  art  which  taught  the  rude  fabrics  made 
to  be  trodden  under  foot  to  rival  the  glowing  canvas 
of  the  great  painters.  None  of  Motley's  subsequent 
writings  give  such  an  insight  into  his  character 
and  mental  history.  It  took  many  years  to  train 
the  as  yet  undisciplined  powers  into  orderly  obedi 
ence,  and  to  bring  the  unarranged  materials  into 
the  organic  connection  which  was  needed  in  the 
construction  of  a  work  that  should  endure.  There 
was  a  long  interval  between  his  early  manhood 
and  the  middle  term  of  life,  during  which  the  slow 
process  of  evolution  was  going  on.  There  are 
plants  which  open  their  flowers  with  the  first  rays 
of  the  sun ;  there  are  others  that  wait  until  evening 
to  spread  their  petals.  It  was  already  the  high 
noon  of  life  with  him  before  his  genius  had  truly 
shown  itself;  if  he  had  not  lived  beyond  this 
period  he  would  have  left  nothing  to  give  him  a 
lasting  name. 


SECTION  IV. 
1839. 


"  Morton's 
Hope." 


36 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECTION  V. 
1841-1842. 


First 

diplomatic 

appointment. 


V. 


First  Diplomatic  Appointment,  — Secretary  of  Lega 
tion  to  the  Russian  Mission.  —  Brief  Residence  at 
St.  Petersburg.  —  Letter  to  his  Mother.  — Return. 
(1841-1842.') 

IN  the  autumn  of  1841  Mr.  Motley  received  the 
appointment  of  Secretary  of  Legation  to  the  Eus- 
sian  Mission,  Mr.  Todd  being  then  the  Minister. 
Arriving  at  St.  Petersburg  just  at  the  beginning 
of  winter,  he  found  the  climate  acting  very  unfavor 
ably  upon  his  spirits  if  not  upon  his  health,  and 
was  unwilling  that  his  wife  and  his  two  young 
children  should  be  exposed  to  its  rigors.  The  ex 
pense  of  living,  also,  was  out  of  proportion  to  his 
income,  and  his  letters  show  that  he  had  hardly 
established  himself  in  St.  Petersburg  before  he 
had  made  up  his  mind  to  leave  a  place  where  he 
found  he  had  nothing  to  do  and  little  to  enjoy. 
He  was  homesick,  too,  as  a  young  husband  and 
father  with  an  affectionate  nature  like  his  ought  to 
have  been  under  these  circumstances.  He  did  not 
regret  having  made  the  experiment,  for  he  knew 
that  he  should  not  have  been  satisfied  with  himself 


A  Memoir. 

if  he  had  not  made  it.  It  was  his  first  trial  of  a  career 
in  which  he  contemplated  embarking,  and  in  which 
afterwards  he  had  an  eventful  experience.  In  his 
private  letters  to  his  family,  many  of  which  I  have 
had  the  privilege  of  looking  over,  he  mentions  in 
detail  all  the  reasons  which  influenced  him  in  form 
ing  his  own  opinion  about  the  expediency  of  a  con 
tinued  residence  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  leaves  the 
decision  to  her  in  whose  judgment  he  always  had 
the  greatest  confidence.  No  unpleasant  circum 
stance  attended  his  resignation  of  his  Secretaryship, 
and  though  it  must  have  been  a  disappointment  to 
find  that  the  place  did  not  suit  him,  as  he  and  his 
family  were  then  situated,  it  was  only  at  the  worst 
an  experiment  fairly  tried  and  not  proving  satisfac 
tory.  He  left  St.  Petersburg  after  a  few  months'  resi 
dence,  and  returned  to  America.  On  reaching  New 
York  he  was  met  by  the  sad  tidings  of  the  death  of 
his  first-born  child,  a  boy  of  great  promise,  who  had 
called  out  all  the  affections  of  his  ardent  nature. 
It  was  long  before  he  recovered  from  the  shock  of 
this  great  affliction.  The  boy  had  shown  a  very  quick 
and  bright  intelligence,  and  his  father  often  betrayed 
a  pride  in  his  gifts  and  graces  which  he  never  for  a 
moment  made  apparent  in  regard  to  his  own. 

Among  the  letters  which  he  wrote  from  St.  Pe 
tersburg  are  two  miniature  ones  directed  to  this 
little  boy.  His  affectionate  disposition  shows  itself 


37 


SECTION  V. 
1841-1842. 


Resigns  and 
returns  to 
America. 


Death  of  his 
son. 


38 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


very  sweetly  in  these  touching  mementos  of  a  love 
of  which  his  first  great  sorrow  was  so  soon  to  be 
born.  Not  less  charming  are  his  letters  to  his 
mother,  showing  the  tenderness  with  which  he  al 
ways  regarded  her,  and  full  of  all  the  details  which 
he  thought  would  entertain  one  to  whom  all  that 
related  to  her  children  was  always  interesting.  Of 
the  letters  to  his  wife  it  is  needless  to  say  more 
than  that  they  always  show  the  depth  of  the  love 
he  bore  her  and  the  absolute  trust  he  placed  in  her, 
consulting  her  at  all  times  as  his  nearest  and  wisest 
friend  and  adviser,  —  one  in  all  respects  fitted 

To  warn,  to  comfort,  and  command. 

I  extract  a  passage  from  one  of  his  letters  to  his 
mother,  as  much  for  the  sake  of  lending  a  character 
of  reality  to  his  brief  residence  at  St.  Petersburg  as 
for  that  of  the  pleasant  picture  it  gives  us  of  an 
interior  in  that  Northern  capital. 

"  We  entered  through  a  small  vestibule,  with  the 
usual  arrangement  of  treble  doors,  padded  with 
leather  to  exclude  the  cold,  and  guarded  by  two 
'proud  young  porters'  in  severe  cocked  hats  and 
formidable  batons,  into  a  broad  hall,  —  threw  off 
our  furred  boots  and  cloaks,  ascended  a  carpeted 
marble  staircase,  in  every  angle  of  which  stood  a 
statuesque  footman  in  gaudy  coat  and  unblem 
ished  unmentionables,  and  reached  a  broad  land- 


A  Memoir. 


39 


ing  upon  the  top  thronged  as  usual  with  servants. 
Thence  we  passed  through  an  antechamber  into  a 
long,  high,  brilliantly  lighted,  saffron-papered  room, 
in  which  a  dozen  card-tables  were  arranged,  and 
thence  into  the  receiving-room.  This  was  a  large 
room,  with  a  splendidly  inlaid  and  polished  floor, 
the  walls  covered  with  crimson  satin,  the  cornices 
heavily  incrusted  with  gold,  and  the  ceiling  beau 
tifully  painted  in  arabesque.  The  massive  fau- 
teuils  and  sofas,  as  also  the  drapery,  were  of 
crimson  satin  with  a  profusion  of  gilding.  The 
ubiquitous  portrait  of  the  Emperor  was  the  only 
picture,  and  was  the  same  you  see  everywhere. 
This  crimson  room  had  the  doors  upon  the  side 
facing  the  three  windows.  The  innermost  opened 
into  a  large  supper-room,  in  which  a  table  was 
spread  covered  with  the  usual  refreshments  of  Eu 
ropean  parties,  —  tea,  ices,  lemonade,  and  et  ceteras, 
—  and  the  other  opened  into  a  ball-room  which  is  a 
sort  of  miniature  of  the  '  salle  blanche'  of  the  Win 
ter  Palace,  being  white  and  gold,  and  very  brilliantly 
lighted  with  '  ormolu  '  chandeliers  filled  with  myri 
ads  of  candles.  This  room  (at  least  forty  feet  long 
by  perhaps  twenty-five)  opened  into  a  carpeted  con 
servatory  of  about  the  same  size,  filled  with  orange- 
trees  and  japonica  plants  covered  with  fruit  and 
flowers,  arranged  very  gracefully  into  arbors,  with 
luxurious  seats  under  the  pendent  boughs,  and  with 


SECTION  V. 
1841-1842. 


Description 
of  a  Russian 
interior. 


40 


John  Lothrqp  Motley. 


SECTION  V. 
1841 -1W2. 


here  and  there  a  pretty  marble  statue  gleaming 
through  the  green  and  glossy  leaves.  One  might 
almost  have  imagined  one's  self  in  the  '  land  of  the 
cypress  and  myrtle'  instead  of  our  actual  where 
about  upon  the  polar  banks  of  the  Neva.  Wan 
dering  through  these  mimic  groves  or  reposing 
from  the  fatigues  of  the  dance,  was  many  a  fair  and 
graceful  form,  while  the  brilliantly  lighted  ball-room, 
filled  with  hundreds  of  exquisitely  dressed  women 
(for  the  Eussian  ladies,  if  not  very  pretty,  are 
graceful,  and  make  admirable  toilettes),  formed  a 
dazzling  contrast  with  the  tempered  light  of  the 
'Winter  Garden.'  The  conservatory  opened  into 
a  library,  and  from  the  library  you  reach  the  ante 
chamber,  thus  completing  the  '  giro '  of  one  of  the 
prettiest  houses  in  St.  Petersburg.  I  waltzed  one 
waltz  and  quadrilled  one  quadrille  —  but  it  was 
hard  work  —  and  as  the  sole  occupation  of  these 
parties  is  dancing  and  card-playing  —  conversation 
apparently  not  being  customary  —  they  are  to  me 
not  very  attractive." 

He  could  not  be  happy  alone,  and  there  were 
good  reasons  against  his  being  joined  by  his  wife 
and  children. 

"  With  my  reserved  habits,"  he  says,  "  it  would 
take  a  great  deal  longer  to  become  intimate  here 
than  to  thaw  the  Baltic.  I  have  only  to  '  knock 
that  it  shall  be  opened  to  me,'  but  that  is  just  what 


A  Memoir. 


41 


I  hate  to  do '  Man  delights  not  me,  no,  nor 

woman  neither.' " 

Disappointed  in  his  expectations,  but  happy  in 
the  thought  of  meeting  his  wife  and  children,  he 
came  back  to  his  household  to  find  it  clad  in 
mourning  for  the  loss  of  its  first-born. 


SECTION  V. 
1842. 


His  return. 


His  bereave 
ment. 


42 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECTION  VI. 
1844. 


Letter  to 
Mr.  Park 
Benjamin. 


Election  of 
Mr.  Polk. 


VI. 

Letter    to    Park   Benjamin.  —  Political  Views   and 
Feelings.     (1844.) 

A  LETTER  to  Mr.  Park  Benjamin,  dated  Decem 
ber  17,  1844,  which  has  been  kindly  lent  me  by 
Mrs.  Mary  Lanman  Douw  of  Poughkeepsie,  gives  a 
very  complete  and  spirited  account  of  himself  at 
this  period.  He  begins  with  a  quiet,  but  tender 
reference  to  the  death  of  his  younger  brother, 
Preble,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  youths  seen  or 
remembered  among  us,  "a  great  favorite,"  as  he 
says,  "in  the  family  and  indeed  with  every  one 
who  knew  him."  He  mentions  the  fact  that  his 
friends  and  near  connections,  the  Stackpoles,  are  in 
Washington,  which  place  he  considers  as  exception- 
ably  odious  at  the  time  when  he  is  writing.  The 
election  of  Mr.  Polk  as  the  opponent  of  Henry 
Clay  gives  him  a  discouraged  feeling  about  our 
institutions.  The  question,  he  thinks,  is  now  settled 
that  a  statesman  can  never  again  be  called  to  admin 
ister  the  government  of  the  country.  He  is  almost 
if  not  quite  in  despair  "because  it  is  now  proved  that 
a  man,  take  him  for  all  in  all,  better  qualified  by 


A  Memoir. 


43 


intellectual  power,  energy  and  purity  of  character, 
knowledge  of  men,  a  great  combination  of  personal 
qualities,  a  frank,  high-spirited,  manly  bearing,  keen 
sense  of  honor,  the  power  of  attracting  and  winning 
men,  united  with  a  vast  experience  in  affairs,  such 
as  no  man  (but  John  Quincy  Adams)  now  living 
has  had  and  no  man  in  this  country  can  ever  have 
again, —  I  say  it  is  proved  that  a  man  better  quali 
fied  by  an  extraordinary  combination  of  advantages 
to  administer  the  government  than  any  man  now 
living,  or  any  man  we  can  ever  produce  again,  can 
be  beaten  by  anybody.  ....  It  has  taken  forty 
years  of  public  life  to  prepare  such  a  man  for  the 
Presidency,  and  the  result  is  that  he  can  be  beaten 
by  anybody  —  Mr.  Polk  is  anybody  —  he  is  Mr. 
Quelconque." 

I  do  not  venture  to  quote  the  most  burning 
sentences  of  this  impassioned  letter.  It  shows 
that  Motley  had  not  only  become  interested  most 
profoundly  in  the  general  movements  of  parties, 
but  that  he  had  followed  the  course  of  political 
events  which  resulted  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk 
with  careful  study,  and  that  he  was  already  look 
ing  forward  to  the  revolt  of  the  slave  States  which 
occurred  fifteen  years  later.  The  letter  is  full  of 
fiery  eloquence,  now  and  then  extravagant  and 
even  violent  in  expression,  but  throbbing  with  a 
generous  heat  which  shows  the  excitable  spirit  of 


44 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


a  man  who  wishes  to  be  proud  of  his  country  and 
does  not  wish  to  keep  his  temper  when  its  acts 
make  him  ashamed  of  it  He  is  disgusted  and  in 
dignant  to  the  last  degree  at  seeing  "Mr.  Quel- 
conque  "  chosen  over  the  illustrious  statesman  who 
was  his  favorite  candidate.  But  all  his  indigna 
tion  cannot  repress  a  sense  of  humor  which  was  one 
of  his  marked  characteristics.  After  fatiguing  his 
vocabulary  with  hard  usage,  after  his  unsparing 
denunciation  of  "  the  -very  dirty  politics "  which 
he  finds  mixed  up  with  our  popular  institutions,  he 
says,  —  it  must  be  remembered  that  this  was  an 
offhand  letter  to  one  nearly  connected  with  him,  — 
"All  these  things  must  in  short,  to  use  the  energetic 
language  of  the  Balm  of  Columbia  advertisement, 
'bring  every  generous  thinking  youth  to  that  heavy 
sinking  gloom  which  not  even  the  loss  of  property 
can  produce,  but  only  the  loss  of  hair,  which  brings 
on  premature  decay,  causing  many  to  shrink  from 
being  uncovered,  and  even  to  shun  society,  to  avoid 
the  jests  and  sneers  of  their  acquaintances.  The 
remainder  of  their  lives  is  consequently  spent  in 
retirement.' " 

He  continues:  "Before  dropping  the  subject, 
and  to  show  the  perfect  purity  of  my  motives,  I 
will  add  that  I  am  not  at  all  anxious  about  the 
legislation  of  the  new  government.  I  desired  the 
election  of  Clay  as  a  moral  triumph,  and  because 


A  Memoir. 


45 


the  administration  of  the  country,  at  this  moment 
of  ten  thousand  times  more  importance  than  its 
legislation,  would  have  been  placed  in  pure,  strong, 
and  determined  hands." 

Then  comes  a  dash  of  that  satirical  and  some 
what  cynical  way  of  feeling  which  he  had  not  as 
yet  outgrown.  He  had  been  speaking  about  the 
general  want  of  attachment  to  the  Union  and  the 
absence  of  the  sentiment  of  loyalty  as  bearing  on 
the  probable  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

"I  don't  mean  to  express  any  opinions  on  these 
matters  —  I  have  n't  got  any.  It  seems  to  me  that 
the  best  way  is  to  look  at  the  hodge-podge,  be  good- 
natured  if  possible,  and  laugh, 

As  from  the  height  of  contemplation 
We  view  the  feeble  joints  men  totter  on. 

I  began  a  tremendous  political  career  during  the 
election,  having  made  two  stump  speeches  of  an 
hour  and  a  half  each,  —  after  you  went  away,  — 
one  in  Dedham  town-hall  and  one  in  Jamaica 
Plain,  with  such  eminent  success  that  many  invi 
tations  came  to  me  from  the  surrounding  villages, 
and  if  I  had  continued  in  active  political  life  I 
might  have  risen  to  be  vote-distributor,  or  fence- 
viewer,  or  selectman,  or  hog-reeve,  or  something  of 
the  kind." 

The  letter  from  which  the  above  passages  are 


46 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECTION  VI. 
1844. 

Letter  to 
Mr.  Park 
Benjamin. 


quoted  gives  the  same  portrait  of  the  writer,  only 
seen  in  profile,  as  it  were,  which  we  have  already 
seen  drawn  in  full  face  in  the  story  of  "  Morton's 
Hope."  It  is  charged  with  that  sceva  indignatio 
which  at  times  verges  on  misanthropic  contempt 
for  its  objects,  not  unnatural  to  a  high-spirited 
young  man  who  sees  his  lofty  ideals  confronted 
with  the  ignoble  facts  which  strew  the  highways  of 
political  life.  But  we  can  recognize  real  conviction 
and  the  deepest  feeling  beneath  his  scornful  rhet 
oric  and  his  bitter  laugh.  He  was  no  more  a  mere 
dilettante  than  Swift  himself,  but  now  and  then  in 
the  midst  of  his  most  serious  thought  some  absurd 
or  grotesque  image  will  obtrude  itself,  and  one  is 
reminded  of  the  lines  on  the  monument  of  Gay 
rather  than  of  the  fierce  epitaph  of  the  Dean  of 
Saint  Patrick's. 


A  Memoir. 


47 


VII. 

First  Historical  and  Critical  Essays.  —  Peter  the 
Great. — Novels  of  Balzac.  —  Polity  of  the  Puri 
tans.  (184^-1847.) 

MR.  MOTLEY'S  first  serious  effort  in  historical 
composition  was  an  article  of  fifty  pages  in  the 
North  American  Eeview  for  October,  1845.  This 
was  nominally  a  notice  of  two  works,  one  on  Eussia, 
the  other  A  Memoir  of  the  Life  of  Peter  the  Great. 
It  is  however  a  narrative  rather  than  a  criticism,  a 
rapid,  continuous,  brilliant,  almost  dramatic  narra 
tive.  If  there  had  been  any  question  as  to  whether 
the  young  novelist  who  had  missed  his  first  mark 
had  in  him  the  elements  which  might  give  him 
success  as  an  author,  this  essay  would  have  settled 
the  question.  It  shows  throughout  that  the  writer 
has  made  a  thorough  study  of  his  subject,  but  it  is 
written  with  an  easy  and  abundant,  yet  scholarly 
freedom,  not  as  if  he  were  surrounded  by  his  au 
thorities  and  picking  out  his  material  piece  by 
piece,  but  rather  as  if  it  were  the  overflow  of  long- 
pursued  and  well-remembered  studies  recalled  with 
out  effort  and  poured  forth  almost  as  a  recreation. 


SECT.  VII. 
1845. 


Essay  in  the 
N.  A.  Re  view. 


Peter  the 
reat. 


48 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


As  he  betrayed  or  revealed  his  personality  in  his 
first  novel,  so  in  this  first  effort  in  another  depart 
ment  of  literature  he  showed  in  epitome  his  quali 
ties  as  a  historian  and  a  biographer.  The  hero  of 
his  narrative  makes  his  entrance  at  once  in  his 
character  as  the  shipwright  of  Saardam,  on  the  oc 
casion  of  a  visit  of  the  great  Duke  of  Marlborough. 
The  portrait  instantly  arrests  attention.  His  ideal 
personages  had  been  drawn  in  such  a  sketchy  way, 
they  presented  so  many  imperfectly  harmonized 
features,  that  they  never  became  real,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  course  of  the  story-teller  himself.  But 
the  vigor  with  which  the  presentment  of  the  im 
perial  ship-carpenter,  the  sturdy,  savage,  eager, 
fiery  Peter,  was  given  in  the  few  opening  sentences, 
showed  the  movement  of  the  hand,  the  glow  of  the 
color,  that  were  in  due  time  to  display  on  a  broader 
canvas  the  full-length  portraits  of  William  the 
Silent  and  of  John  of  Barneveld.  The  style  of 
the  whole  article  is  rich,  fluent,  picturesque,  with 
light  touches  of  humor  here  and  there,  and  perhaps 
a  trace  or  two  of  youthful  jauntiness,  not  quite  as 
yet  outgrown.  His  illustrative  poetical  quotations 
are  mostly  from  Shakespeare,  —  from  Milton  and 
Byron  also  in  a  passage  or  two,  —  and  now  and  then 
one  is  reminded  that  he  is  not  unfamiliar  with 
Carlyle's  Sartor  Resartus  and  the  French  Revolu 
tion  of  the  same  unmistakable  writer,  more  per- 


A  Memoir. 


haps  by  the  way  in  which  phrases  borrowed  from 
other  authorities  are  set  in  the  text  than  by  any 
more  important  evidence  of  unconscious  imitation. 

The  readers  who  had  shaken  their  heads  over  the 
unsuccessful  story  of  "  Morton's  Hope  "  were  star 
tled  by  the  appearance  of  this  manly  and  scholarly 
essay.  This  young  man,  it  seemed,  had  been  study 
ing,  —  studying  with  careful  accuracy,  with  broad 
purpose.  He  could  paint  a  character  with  the  ruddy 
life-blood  coloring  it  as  warmly  as  it  glows  in  the 
cheeks  of  one  of  Van  der  Heist's  burgomasters.  He 
could  sweep  the  horizon  in  a  wide  general  outlook, 
and  manage  his  perspective  and  his  lights  and 
shadows  so  as  to  place  and  accent  his  special  sub 
ject  with  its  due  relief  and  just  relations.  It  was 
a  sketch,  or  rather  a  study  for  a  larger  picture,  but 
it  betrayed  the  hand  of  a  master.  The  feeling  of 
many  was  that  expressed  in  the  words  of  Mr. 
Longfellow  in  his  review  of  the  "  Twice-Told 
Tales  "  of  the  unknown  young  writer,  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne:  "When  a  new  star  rises  in  the  heavens, 
people  gaze  after  it  for  a  season  with  the  naked 

eye,  and  with  such  telescopes  as  they  may  find 

This  star  is  but  newly  risen ;  and  erelong  the  ob 
servation  of  numerous  star-gazers,  perched  up  on 
arm-chairs  and  editor's  tables,  will  inform  the  world 
of  its  magnitude  and  its  place  in  the  heaven  of" — 


SECT.  VII. 
1845. 


His  Essay 
applauded. 


50 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  VII. 
1845-1847. 


not  poetry  in  this  instance,  but  that  serene  and 
unclouded  region  of  the  firmament  where  shine 
unchanging  the  names  of  Herodotus  and  Thu- 
cidydes.  Those  who  had  always  believed  in  their 
brilliant  schoolmate  and  friend  at  last  felt  them 
selves  justified  in  their  faith.  The  artist  that  sent 
this  unframed  picture  to  be  hung  in  a  corner  of  the 
literary  gallery  was  equal  to  larger  tasks.  There 
was  but  one  voice  in  the  circle  that  surrounded  the 
young  Essayist.  He  must  redeem  his  pledge,  he 
can  and  will  redeem  it,  if  he  will  only  follow  the 
bent  of  his  genius  and  grapple  with  the  heroic 
labor  of  writing  a  great  history. 

And  this  was  the  achievement  he  was  already 
meditating. 

In  the  mean  time  he  was  studying  history  for  its 
facts  and  principles,  and  fiction  for  its  scenery  and 
portraits.  In  the  North  American  Review  for  July, 
1847,  is  a  long  and  characteristic  article  on  Balzac, 
of  whom  he  was  an  admirer,  but  with  no  blind 
worship.  The  readers  of  this  great  story-teller,  who 
was  so  long  in  obtaining  recognition,  who  "  made 
twenty  assaults  upon  fame  and  had  forty  books 
killed  under  him  "  before  he  achieved  success,  will 
find  his  genius  fully  appreciated  and  fairly  weighed 
in  this  discriminating  essay.  A  few  brief  extracts 
will  show  its  quality. 

"  Balzac  is  an  artist,  and  only  an  artist.     In  his 


A  Memoir. 


51 


tranquil,  unimpassioned,  remorseless  diagnosis  of 
morbid  phenomena,  in  his  cool  method  of  treating 
the  morbid  anatomy  of  the  heart,  in  his  curiously 
accurate  dissection  of  the  passions,  in  the  patient 
and  painful  attention  with  which,  stethoscope  in 
hand,  finger  on  pulse,  eye  everywhere,  you  see  him 
watching  every  symptom,  alive  to  every  sound  and 
every  breath,  and  in  the  scientific  accuracy  with 
which  he  portrays  the  phenomena  which  have  been 
the  subject  of  his  investigation,  —  in  all  this  calm 
and  conscientious  study  of  nature  he  often  reminds 
us  of  Goethe.  Balzac,  however,  is  only  an  artist. 
....  He  is  neither  moral  nor  immoral,  but  a  calm 
and  profound  observer  of  human  society  and  human 
passions,  and  a  minute,  patient,  and  powerful  delin 
eator  of  scenes  and  characters  in  the  world  before 
his  eyes.  His  readers  must  moralize  for  them 
selves It  is,  perhaps,  his  defective  style  more 

than  anything  else  which  will  prevent  his  becom 
ing  a  classic,  for  style  above  all  other  qualities 
seems  to  embalm  for  posterity.  As  for  his  phi 
losophy,  his  principles,  moral,  political,  or  social,  we 
repeat  that  he  seems  to  have  none  whatever.  He 
looks  for  the  picturesque  and  the  striking.  He 
studies  sentiments  and  sensations  from  an  artistic 
point  of  view.  He  is  a  physiognomist,  a  physiolo 
gist,  a  bit  of  an  anatomist,  a  bit  of  a  mesmerist,  a 
bit  of  a  geologist,  a  Flemish  painter,  an  upholsterer, 


52 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  VII. 
1849. 


Essay;  "Pol 
ity  of  the 
Puritans." 


a  micrological,  misanthropical,  sceptical  philoso 
pher  ;  but  he  is  no  moralist,  and  certainly  no  re 
former." 

Another  article  contributed  by  Mr.  Motley  to 
the  North  American  Review  is  to  be  found  in  the 
number  for  October,  1849.  It  is  nominally  a  re 
view  of  Talvi's  (Mrs.  Eobinson's)  Geschicht  der 
Colonisation  von  New  England,  but  in  reality  an 
essay  on  the  "  Polity  of  the  Puritans,"  —  an  histori 
cal  disquisition  on  the  principles  of  self-government 
evolved  in  New  England,  broad  in  its  views,  elo 
quent  in  its  language.  Its  spirit  is  thoroughly 
American,  and  its  estimate  of  the  Puritan  character 
is  not  narrowed  by  the  near-sighted  liberalism 
which  sees  the  past  in  the  pitiless  light  of  the 
present,  —  which  looks  around  at  high  noon  and 
finds  fault  with  early  dawn  for  its  long  and  dark 
shadows.  Here  is  a  sentence  or  two  from  the  ar 
ticle  :  — 

"  With  all  the  faults  of  the  system  devised  by 
the  Puritans,  it  was  a  practical  system.  With  all 
their  foibles,  with  all  their  teasing,  tyrannical,  and 
arbitrary  notions,  the  Pilgrims  were  lovers  of  liberty 

as  well  as  sticklers  for  authority Nowhere 

can  a  better  description  of  liberty  be  found  than 
that  given  by  Winthrop,  in  his  defence  of  himself 
before  the  General  Court  on  a  charge  of  arbitrary 
conduct.  'Nor  would  I  have  you  mistake  your 


A  Memoir. 


53 


own  liberty,'  he  says.  '  There  is  a  freedom  of  doing 
what  we  list,  without  regard  to  kw  or  justice ;  this 
liberty  is  indeed  inconsistent  with  authority ;  but 
civil,  moral,  and  federal  liberty  consists  in  every 
man's  enjoying  his  property  and  having  the  benefit 
of  the  laws  of  his  country ;  which  is  very  consistent 
with  a  due  subjection  to  the  civil  magistrate.'  .... 

"  We  enjoy  an  inestimable  advantage  in  America. 
One  can  be  a  republican,  a  democrat,  without  being 
a  radical.  A  radical,  one  who  would  uproot,  is  a 
man  whose  trade  is  dangerous  to  society.  Here  is 
but  little  to  uproot.  The  trade  cannot  flourish. 
All  classes  are  conservative  by  necessity,  for  none 
can  wish  to  change  the  structure  of  our  polity 

"  The  country  without  a  past  cannot  'be  intoxi 
cated  by  visions  of  the  past  of  other  lauds.  Upon 
this  absence  of  the  past  it  seems  to  us  that  much 
of  the  security  of  our  institutions  depends.  Noth 
ing  interferes  with  the  development  of  what  is  now 
felt  to  be  the  true  principle  of  government,  the  will 
of  the  people  legitimately  expressed.  To  establish 
that  great  truth,  nothing  was  to  be  torn  down,  noth 
ing  to  be  uprooted.  It  grew  up  in  New  England 
out  of  the  seed  unconsciously  planted  by  the  first 
Pilgrims,  was  not  crushed  out  by  the  weight  of  a 
thousand  years  of  error  spread  over  the  whole  con 
tinent,  and  the  Eevolution  was  proclaimed  and  rec 
ognized." 


SECT.  VIL 
1849. 


Essay ; 
"  Polity  of 
the  Puri 
tans." 


54 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


SECT.  VIII. 

1847. 


Friendship 
with  J.  L. 
Stackpole. 


VIII. 

Joseph  Lewis  Stackpole,  the  friend  of  Motley.  His 
sudden  death. — Motley  in  the  Massachusetts  House 
of  Representatives.  —  Second  Novel,  —  "  Merry- 
Mount,  A  Romance  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony" 
(1847-1849-) 

THE  intimate  friendships  of  early  manhood  are 
not  very  often  kept  up  among  our  people.  The 
eager  pursuit  of  fortune,  position,  office,  separates 
young  friends,  and  the  indoor  home  life  imprisons 
them  in  the  domestic  circle  so  generally  that  it  is 
quite  exceptional  to  find  two  grown  men  who  are 
like  brothers,  —  or  rather  unlike  most  brothers,  in 
being  constantly  found  together.  An  exceptional 
instance  of  such  a  more  than  fraternal  relation  was 
seen  in  the  friendship  of  Mr.  Motley  and  Mr.  Jo 
seph  Lewis  Stackpole.  Mr.  William  Amory,  who 
knew  them  both  well,  has  kindly  furnished  me 
with  some  recollections,  which  I  cannot  improve 
by  changing  his  own  language. 

"  Their  intimacy  began  in  Europe,  and  they  re 
turned  to  this  country  in  1835.  In  1837  they 
married  sisters,  and  this  cemented  their  intimacy, 


A  Memoir. 


55 


which  continued  to  Stackpole's  death  in  1847.  The 
contrast  in  the  temperament  of  the  two  friends  — 
the  one  sensitive  and  irritable,  and  the  other  al 
ways  cool  and  good-natured  —  only  increased  their 
mutual  attachment  to  each  other,  and  Motley's  de 
pendence  upon  Stackpole.  Never  were  two  friends 
more  constantly  together  or  more  affectionately 
fond  of  each  other.  As  Stackpole  was  about  eight 
years  older  than  Motley,  and  much  less  impulsive 
and  more  discreet,  his  death  was  to  his  friend 
irreparable,  and  at  the  time  an  overwhelming 
blow." 

Mr.  Stackpole  was  a  man  of  great  intelligence, 
of  remarkable  personal  attractions,  and  amiable 
character.  His  death  was  a  loss  to  Motley  even 
greater  than  he  knew,  for  he  needed  just  such  a 
friend,  older,  calmer,  more  experienced  in  the  ways 
of  the  world,  and  above  all  capable  of  thoroughly 
understanding  him  and  exercising  a  wholesome  in 
fluence  over  his  excitable  nature  without  the  seem 
ing  of  a  Mentor  preaching  to  a  Telemachus.  Mr. 
Stackpole  was  killed  by  a  railroad  accident  on  the 
20th  of  July,  1847. 

In  the  same  letter  Mr.  Amory  refers  to  a  very 
different  experience  in  Mr.  Motley's  life,  —  his  one 
year  of  service  as  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Eepresentatives,  1849. 

"In  respect  to  the  one  term  during  which  he 


SECT.  VIII. 

1847. 


Death  of  J.L. 
Stackpole. 


56 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SBCT.  VIII. 
1849. 

Mr.  Motley 
in  the  Mass. 
H.  of  Repre 
sentatives. 


His  Report 
on  Education. 


Mr.  Bout- 
well's  letter. 


was  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  House  of 
^Representatives,  I  can  recall  only  one  thing,  to 
which  he  often  and  laughingly  alluded.  Motley, 
as  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Education, 
made,  as  he  thought,  a  most  masterly  Eeport.  It 
was  very  elaborate,  and,  as  he  supposed,  unanswer 
able  ;  but  Boutwell,  then  a  young  man  from  some 
country  town  [Groton,  Mass.],  rose,  and  as  Motley 
always  said,  demolished  the  Eeport,  so  that  he  was 
unable  to  defend  it  against  the  attack.  You  can 
imagine  his  disgust,  after  the  pains  he  had  taken 
to  render  it  unassailable,  to  find  himself,  as  he 
expressed  it,  '  on  his  own  dunghill,'  ignominiously 
beaten.  While  the  result  exalted  his  opinion  of 
the  speech-making  faculty  of  a  Eepresentative  of  a 
common  school  education,  it  at  the  same  time  cured 
him  of  any  ambition  for  political  promotion  in 
Massachusetts." 

To  my  letter  of  inquiry  about  this  matter,  Hon. 
George  S.  Boutwell  courteously  returned  the  follow 
ing  answer :  — 

BOSTON,  October  14,  1878. 

MY  DEAE  SIR,  —  As  my  memory  serves  me,  Mr. 
Motley  was  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  House 
of  Eepresentatives  in  the  year  1847  [1849].  It 
may  be  well  to  consult  the  Manual  for  that  year. 
I  recollect  the  controversy  over  the  Eeport  from 
the  Committee  on  Education. 


A  Memoir. 


57 


His  failure  was  not  due  to  his  want  of  faculty  or 
to  the  vigor  of  his  opponents. 

In  truth  he  espoused  the  weak  side  of  the  ques 
tion  and  the  unpopular  one  also.  His  proposition 
was  to  endow  the  colleges  at  the  expense  of  the 
fund  for  the  support  of  the  common  schools.  Fail 
ure  was  inevitable.  Neither  Webster  nor  Choate 
could  have  carried  the  bill. 

Very  truly, 

GEO.  S.  BOUTWELL. 

No  one  could  be  more  ready  and  willing  to  rec 
ognize  his  own  failures  than  Motley.  He  was  as 
honest  and  manly,  perhaps  I  may  say  as  sympa 
thetic  with  the  feeling  of  those  about  him,  on  this 
occasion,  as  was  Charles  Lamb,  who,  sitting  with  his 
sister  in  the  front  of  the  pit,  on  the  night  when  his 
farce  was  damned  at  its  first  representation,  gave 
way  to  the  common  feeling,  and  hissed  and  hooted 
lustily  with  the  others  around  him.  It  was  what 
might  be  expected  from  his  honest  and  truthful 
nature,  sometimes  too  severe  in  judging  itself. 

The  commendation  bestowed  upon  Motley's  his 
torical  Essays  in  the  North  American  Eeview  must 
have  gone  far  towards  compensating  him  for  the  ill 
success  of  his  earlier  venture.  It  pointed  clearly 
towards  the  field  in  which  he  was  to  gather  his 
laurels.  And  it  was  in  the  year  following  the  pub- 


SECT.  VIII. 


His  Report 
on  Educa 
tion. 


He  accepts 
its  failure 
cheerfully. 


58 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


lication  of  the  first  Essay,  or  about  that  time  (1846), 
that  he  began  collecting  materials  for  a  history  of 
Holland. 

Whether  to  tell  the  story  of  men  that  have  lived 
and  of  events  that  have  happened,  or  to  create  the 
characters  and  invent  the  incidents  of  an  imaginary 
tale  be  the  higher  task,  we  need  not  stop  to  discuss. 
But  the  young  author  was  just  now  like  Sir  Joshua's 
picture  of  the  great  actor  between  the  allurements 
of  Thalia  and  Melpomene,  still  doubtful  whether  he 
was  to  be  a  romancer  or  a  historian. 

The  tale  of  which  the  title  is  given  at  the 
beginning  of  this  section  had  been  written  sev 
eral  years  before  the  date  of  its  publication.  It 
is  a  great  advance  in  certain  respects  over  the 
first  novel,  but  wants  the  peculiar  interest  which 
belonged  to  that  as  a  partially  autobiographical 
memoir.  The  story  is  no  longer  disjointed  and 
impossible.  It  is  carefully  studied  in  regard  to  its 
main  facts.  It  has  less  to  remind  us  of  "Vivian 
Grey  "  and  "Pelham,"  and  more  that  recalls  "Wood 
stock"  and  "  Kenilworth."  The  personages  were 
many  of  them  historical,  though  idealized ;  the  oc 
currences  were  many  of  them  such  as  the  record 
authenticated;  the  localities  were  drawn  largely 
from  nature.  The  story  betrays  marks  of  haste  or 
carelessness  in  some  portions,  though  others  are 
elaborately  studied.  His  preface  shows  that  the 


A  Memoir. 


59 


reception  of  his  first  book  had  made  him  timid  and 
sensitive  about  the  fate  of  the  second,  and  explains 
and  excuses  what  might  be  found  fault  with,  to  dis 
arm  the  criticism  he  had  some  reason  to  fear. 

That  old  watch-dog  of  our  American  literature, 
the  North  American  Review,  always  ready  with 
lambent  phrases  in  stately  "Articles"  for  native 
talent  of  a  certain  pretension,  and  wagging  its  ap 
pendix  of  "  Critical  Notices  "  kindly  at  the  advent 
of  humbler  merit,  treated  "  Merry-Mount "  with  the 
distinction  implied  in  a  review  of  nearly  twenty 
pages.  This  was  a  great  contrast  to  the  brief  and 
slighting  notice  of  "  Morton's  Hope."  The  reviewer 
thinks  the  author's  descriptive  power  wholly  exceeds 
his  conception  of  character  and  invention  of  circum 
stances.  "  He  dwells,  perhaps,  too  long  and  fondly 
upon  his  imagination  of  the  landscape  as  it  was  be 
fore  the  stillness  of  the  forest  had  been  broken  by 
the  axe  of  the  settler ;  but  the  picture  is  so  finely 
drawn,  with  so  much  beauty  of  language  and  purity 
of  sentiment,  that  we  cannot  blame  him  for  linger 
ing  upon  the  scene The  story  is  not  managed 

with  much  skill,  but  it  has  variety  enough  of  inci 
dent  and  character,  and  is  told  with  so  much  live 
liness  that  few  will  be  inclined  to  lay  it  down  before 

reaching  the  conclusion The  writer  certainly 

needs  practice  in  elaborating  the  details  of  a  con 
sistent  and  interesting  novel ;  but  in  many  respects 


SECT.  VIII. 
1849. 


His  second 
novel, 

[erry- 
Mount." 


Criticisms 
upon  it. 


60 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  VIII. 
1849. 


Still  collect 
ing  materials 
for  a  history. 


he  is  well  qualified  for  the  task,  and  we  shall  be 
glad  to  meet  him  again  on  the  half-historical  ground 
he  has  chosen.  His  present  work,  certainly,  is  not 
a  fair  specimen  of  what  he  is  able  to  accomplish, 
and  its  failure,  or  partial  success,  ought  only  to  in 
spirit  him  for  further  effort." 

The  "  half-historical  ground  "  he  had  chosen  had 
already  led  him  to  the  entrance  into  the  broader 
domain  of  history.  The  "  further  effort "  for  which 
he  was  to  be  inspirited  had  already  begun.  He  had 
been  for  some  time,  as  was  before  mentioned,  col 
lecting  materials  for  the  work  which  was  to  cast  all 
his  former  attempts  into  the  kindly  shadow  of  ob 
livion  save  when  from  time  to  time  the  light  of  his 
brilliant  after  success  is  thrown  upon  them  to  illus 
trate  the  path  by  which  it  was  at  length  attained. 


A  Memoir. 


61 


IX. 

Plan  of  a  History.  —  Letters,     (i860) 

THE  reputation  of  Mr.  Prescott  was  now  coexten 
sive  with  the  realm  of  scholarship.  The  Histories 
of  the  reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  and  of  the 
Conquest  of  Mexico  had  met  with  a  reception 
which  might  well  tempt  the  ambition  of  a  young 
writer  to  emulate  it,  but  which  was  not  likely  to 
be  awarded  to  any  second  candidate  who  should 
enter  the  field  in  rivalry  with  the  great  and  uni 
versally  popular  historian.  But  this  was  the  field 
on  which  Mr.  Motley  was  to  venture. 

After  he  had  chosen  the  subject  of  the  history  he 
contemplated,  he  found  that  Mr.  Prescott  was  occu 
pied  with  a  kindred  one,  so  that  there  might  be  too 
near  a  coincidence  between  them.  I  must  borrow 
from  Mr.  Ticknor's  beautiful  Life  of  Prescott  the 
words  which  introduce  a  letter  of  Motley's  to  Mr. 
William  Amory,  who  has  kindly  allowed  me  also 
to  make  use  of  it. 

"The  moment,  therefore,  that  he  [Mr.  Motley] 
was  aware  of  this  condition  of  things,  and  the  con 
sequent  possibility  that  there  might  be  an  untoward 
interference  in  their  plans,  he  took  the  same  frank 


62 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


and  honorable  course  with  Mr.  Prescott  that  Mr. 
Prescott  had  taken  in  relation  to  Mr.  Irving,  when 
he  found  that  they  had  both  been  contemplating  a 
'  History  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico.'  The  result 
was  the  same.  Mr.  Prescott,  instead  of  treating  the 
matter  as  an  interference,  earnestly  encouraged  Mr. 
Motley  to  go  on,  and  placed  at  his  disposition  such 
of  the  books  in  his  library  as  could  be  most  useful 
to  him.  How  amply  and  promptly  he  did  it,  Mr. 
Motley's  own  account  will  best  show.  It  is  in  a 
letter  dated  at  Eome,  26th  February,  1859,  the  day 
he  heard  of  Mr.  Prescott's  death,  and  was  addressed 
to  his  intimate  friend,  Mr.  William  Amory,  of  Bos 
ton,  Mr.  Prescott's  much  loved  brother-in-law." 

"  It  seems  to  rne  but  as  yesterday,"  Mr.  Motley 
writes,  "  though  it  must  be  now  twelve  years  ago, 
that  I  was  talking  with  our  ever-lamented  friend 
Stackpole  about  my  intention  of  writing  a  history 
upon  a  subject  to  which  I  have  since  that  time 
been  devoting  myself.  I  had  then  made  already 
some  general  studies  in  reference  to  it,  without 
being  in  the  least  aware  that  Prescott  had  the  in 
tention  of  writing  the  *  History  of  Philip  the  Sec 
ond.'  Stackpole  had  heard  the  fact,  and  that  large 
preparations  had  already  been  made  for  the  work, 
although  'Peru'  had  not  yet  been  published.  I 
felt  naturally  much  disappointed.  I  was  conscious 


A  Memoir. 


63 


of  the  immense  disadvantage  to  myself  of  making 
my  appearance,  probably  at  the  same  time,  before 
the  public,  with  a  work  not  at  all  similar  in  plan 
to  Philip  the  Second,  but  which  must  of  necessity 
traverse  a  portion  of  the  same  ground. 

"My  first  thought  was  inevitably,  as  it  were, 
only  of  myself.  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  noth 
ing  to  do  but  to  abandon  at  once  a  cherished  dream, 
and  probably  to  renounce  authorship.  For  I  had 
not  first  made  up  my  mind  to  write  a  history,  and 
then  cast  about  to  take  up  a  subject.  My  subject 
had  taken  me  up,  drawn  me  on,  and  absorbed  me  into 
itself.  It  was  necessary  for  me,  it  seemed,  to  write 
the  book  I  had  been  thinking  much  of,  even  if  it  were 
destined  to  fall  dead  from  the  press,  and  I  had  no 
inclination  or  interest  to  write  any  other.  When  I 
had  made  up  my  mind  accordingly,  it  then  occurred 
to  me  that  Prescott  might  not  be  pleased  that  I 
should  come  forward  upon  his  ground.  It  is  true 
that  no  announcement  of  his  intentions  had  been 
made,  and  that  he  had  not,  I  believe,  even  com 
menced  his  preliminary  studies  for  Philip.  At  the 
same  time  I  thought  it  would  be  disloyal  on  my 
part  not  to  go  to  him  at  once,  confer  with  him  on 
the  subject,  and  if  I  should  find  a  shadow  of  dis 
satisfaction  on  his  mind  at  my  proposition,  to  aban 
don  my  plan  altogether. 

"  I  had  only  the  slightest  acquaintance  with  him 


64 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


at  that  time.  I  was  comparatively  a  young  man, 
and  certainly  not  entitled  on  any  ground  to  more 
than  the  common  courtesy  which  Prescott  never 
could  refuse  to  any  one.  But  he  received  me  with 
such  a  frank  and  ready  and  liberal  sympathy,  and 
such  an  open-hearted,  guileless  expansiveness,  that 
I  felt  a  personal  affection  for  him  from  that  hour. 
I  remember  the  interview  as  if  it  had  taken  place 
yesterday.  It  was  in  his  father's  house,  in  his  own 
library,  looking  on  the  garden-house  and  garden,  — 
honored  father  and  illustrious  sou, — alas  !  all  num 
bered  with  the  things  that  were  !  He  assured  me 
that  he  had  not  the  slightest  objection  whatever  to 
my  plan,  that  he  wished  me  every  success,  and  that, 
if  there  were  any  books  in  his  library  bearing  on 
my  subject  that  I  liked  to  use,  they  were  entirely 
at  my  service.  After  I  had  expressed  my  gratitude 
for  his  kindness  and  cordiality,  by  which  I  had 
been  in  a  very  few  moments  set  completely  at  ease, 
—  so  far  as  my  fears  of  his  disapprobation  went,  — 
I  also  very  naturally  stated  my  opinion  that  the 
danger  was  entirely  mine,  and  that  it  was  rather 
wilful  of  me  thus  to  risk  such  a  collision  at  my 
first  venture,  the  probable  consequence  of  which 
was  utter  shipwreck.  I  recollect  how  kindly  and 
warmly  he  combated  this  opinion,  assuring  me  that 
no  two  books,  as  he  said,  ever  injured  each  other, 
and  encouraging  me  in  the  warmest  and  most  ear- 


A  Memoir. 


65 


nest  manner  to  proceed  on  the  course  I  had  marked 
out  for  myself. 

"  Had  the  result  of  that  interview  been  different, 
—  had  he  distinctly  stated,  or  even  vaguely  hinted, 
that  it  would  be  as  well  if  I  should  select  some 
other  topic,  or  had  he  only  sprinkled  rne  with  the 
cold  water  of  conventional  and  commonplace  en 
couragement,  —  I  should  have  gone  from  him  with 
a  chill  upon  my  mind,  and,  no  doubt,  have  laid 
down  the  pen  at  once ;  for,  as  I  have  already  said, 
it  was  not  that  I  cared  about  writing  a  history,  but 
that  I  felt  an  inevitable  impulse  to  write  one  par 
ticular  history. 

"You  know  how  kindly  he  always  spoke  of 
and  to  me ;  and  the  generous  manner  in  which, 
without  the  slightest  hint  from  me,  and  entirely 
unexpected  by  me,  he  attracted  the  eyes  of  his  hosts 
of  readers  to  my  forthcoming  work,  by  so  hand 
somely  alluding  to  it  in  the  Preface  to  his  own,  must 
be  almost  as  fresh  in  your  memory  as  it  is  in  mine. 

"  And  although  it  seems  easy  enough  for  a  man 
of  world-wide  reputation  thus  to  extend  the  right 
hand  of  fellowship  to  an  unknown  and  struggling 
aspirant,  yet  I  fear  that  the  history  of  literature 
will  show  that  such  instances  of  disinterested  kind 
ness  are  as  rare  as  they  are  noble." 

It  was  not  from  any  feeling  that  Mr.  Motley  was 


66 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECTION  IX. 
1850. 


Mr.  Prescott 
recognizes 
Mr.  Motley's 
force  as  a 
competitor. 


a  young  writer  from  whose  rivalry  he  had  nothing 
to  apprehend.  Mr.  Amory  says  that  Prescott  ex 
pressed  himself  very  decidedly  to  the  effect  that  an 
author  who  had  written  such  descriptive  passages 
as  were  to  be  found  in  Mr.  Motley's  published  writ 
ings  was  not  to  be  undervalued  as  a  competitor  by 
any  one.  The  reader  who  will  turn  to  the  descrip 
tion  of  Charles  Eiver  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  the 
second  volume  of  "Merry  Mount,"  or  of  the  au 
tumnal  woods  in  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  the  same 
volume,  will  see  good  reason  for  Mr.  Prescott's  ap 
preciation  of  the  force  of  the  rival  whose  advent  he 
so  heartily  and  generously  welcomed. 


A  Memoir. 


67 


X. 


Historical  Studies  in  Europe.  —  Letter  from  Brussels. 
(1851-1856.} 

AFTER  working  for  several  years  on  his  projected 
History  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  he  found  that,  in 
order  to  do  justice  to  his  subject,  he  must  have  re 
course  to  the  authorities  to  be  found  only  in  the 
libraries  and  state  archives  of  Europe.  In  the  year 
1851  he  left  America  with  his  family,  to  begin  his 
task  over  again,  throwing  aside  all  that  he  had 
already  done,  and  following  up  his  new  course  of 
investigations  at  Berlin,  Dresden,  the  Hague,  and 
Brussels  during  several  succeeding  years.  I  do  not 
know  that  I  can  give  a  better  idea  of  his  mode  of 
life  during  this  busy  period,  his  occupations,  his 
state  of  mind,  his  objects  of  interest  outside  of  his 
special  work,  than  by  making  the  following  extracts 
from  a  long  letter  to  myself,  dated  Brussels,  20th 
November,  1853. 

After  some  personal  matters  he  continues  :  — 
"  I  don't  really  know  what  to  say  to  you.     I  am 
in  a  town  which,  for  aught  I  know,  may  be  very 
gay.     I  don't  know  a  living  soul  in  it.     We  have 


SECTION  X. 
1851-1856. 


Visits  Europe 
to  study  for 
his  work. 


Writes  from 
Brussels. 


68 


John  Ldthrop  Motley. 


not  a  single  acquaintance  in  the  place,  and  we 
glory  in  the  fact.  There  is  something  rather  sub 
lime  in  thus  floating  on  a  single  spar  in  the  wide 
sea  of  a  populous,  busy,  fuming,  fussy  world  like 
this.  At  any  rate  it  is  consonant  to  both  our 
tastes.  You  may  suppose,  however,  that  I  find  it 
rather  difficult  to  amuse  my  friends  out  of  the  in 
cidents  of  so  isolated  an  existence.  Our  daily 
career  is  very  regular  and  monotonous.  Our  life 
is  as  stagnant  as  a  Dutch  canal.  Not  that  I  com 
plain  of  it,  —  on  the  contrary,  the  canal  may  be 
richly  freighted  with  merchandise  and  be  a  short 
cut  to  the  ocean  of  abundant  and  perpetual  knowl 
edge  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  few  points  rise  above 
the  level  of  so  regular  a  life,  to  be  worthy  of  your 
notice.  You  must,  therefore,  allow  me  to  meander 
along  the  meadows  of  commonplace.  Don't  expect 
anything  of  the  impetuous  and  boiling  style.  We 
go  it  weak  here.  I  don't  know  whether  you  were 
ever  in  Brussels.  It  is  a  striking,  picturesque 
town,  built  up  a  steep  promontory,  the  old  part  at 
the  bottom,  very  dingy  and  mouldy,  the  new  part 
at  the  top,  very  showy  and  elegant.  Nothing  can 
be  more  exquisite  in  its  way  than  the  grande  place 
in  the  very  heart  of  the  city,  surrounded  with  those 
toppling,  zigzag,  ten-storied  buildings  bedizened  all 
over  with  ornaments  and  emblems  so  peculiar  to  the 
Netherlands,  with  the  brocaded  Hotel  de  Ville  on 


A  Memoir. 


69 


one  side,  with  its  impossible  spire  rising  some  three 
hundred  and  seventy  feet  into  the  air  and  embroid 
ered  to  the  top  with  the  delicacy  of  needle-work, 
sugar-work,  spider- work,  or  what  you  will.  I  haunt 
this  place  because  it  is  my  scene,  —  my  theatre. 
Here  were  enacted  so  many  deep  tragedies,  so  many 
stately  dramas,  and  even  so  many  farces,  which 
have  been  familiar  to  me  so  long  that  I  have  got 
to  imagine  myself  invested  with  a  kind  of  property 
in  the  place,  and  look  at  it  as  if  it  were  merely 
the  theatre  with  the  coulisses,  machinery,  drapery, 
etc.,  for  representing  scenes  which  have  long  since 
vanished,  and  which  no  more  enter  the  minds  of 
the  men  and  women  who  are  actually  moving 
across  its  pavements  than  if  they  had  occurred  in 
the  moon.  When  I  say  that  I  knew  no  soul  in 
Brussels  I  am  perhaps  wrong.  "With  the  present 
generation  I  am  not  familiar.  En  revanche,  the 
dead  men  of  the  place  are  my  intimate  friends.  I 
am  at  home  in  any  cemetery.  With  the  fellows 
of  the  sixteenth  century  I  am  on  the  most  familiar 
terms.  Any  ghost  that  ever  flits  by  night  across 
the  moonlight  square  is  at  once  hailed  by  me  as 
a  man  and  a  brother.  I  call  him  by  his  Chris 
tian  name  at  once.  When  you  come  out  of  this 
place,  however,  which,  as  I  said,  is  in  the  heart  of 
the  town  —  the  antique  gem  in  the  modern  set 
ting  —  you  may  go  either  up  or  down  —  if  you  go 


70 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


down  you  will  find  yourself  in  the  very  nastiest 
complications  of  lanes  and  culs-de-sacs  possible  — 
a  dark  entanglement  of  gin-shops,  beer-houses,  and 
hovels,  —  through  which  charming  valley  dribbles 
the  Senne  (whence,  I  suppose,  is  derived  Senna), 
the  most  nauseous  little  river  in  the  world  —  which 
receives  all  the  outpourings  of  all  the  drains  and 
houses  and  is  then  converted  into  beer  for  the 
inhabitants,  all  the  many  breweries  being  directly 
upon  its  edge.  If  you  go  up  the  hill  instead  of 
down  you  come  to  an  arrangement  of  squares,  pal 
aces,  and  gardens  as  trim  and  fashionable  as  you 
will  find  in  Europe.  Thus  you  see  that  our  Cybele 
sits  with  her  head  crowned  with  very  stately  tow 
ers  and  her  feet  in  a  tub  of  very  dirty  water. 

"  My  habits  here  for  the  present  year  are  very 
regular.  I  came  here,  having,  as  I  thought,  finished 
my  work,  or  rather  the  first  Part  (something  like 
three  or  four  volumes,  8vo),  but  I  find  so  much 
original  matter  here,  and  so  many  emendations  to 
make,  that  I  am  ready  to  despair.  However,  there 
is  nothing  for  it  but  to  penelopize,  pull  to  pieces, 
and  stitch  away  again.  Whatever  may  be  the  re 
sult  of  my  labor,  nobody  can  say  that  I  have  not 
worked  like  a  brute  beast,  —  but  I  don't  care  for 
the  result.  The  labor  is  in  itself  its  own  reward 
and  all  I  want.  I  go  day  after  day  to  the  archives 
here  (as  I  went  all  summer  at  the  Hague)  studying 


A  Memoir. 


71 


the  old  letters  and  documents  of  the  fifteenth  cen 
tury.  Here  I  remain  among  my  fellow-worms, 
feeding  on  these  musty  mulberry-leaves,  out  of 
which  we  are  afterwards  to  spin  our  silk.  How 
can  you  expect  anything  interesting  from  such  a 
human  cocoon  ?  It  is,  however,  not  without  its 
amusement  in  a  mouldy  sort  of  way,  this  reading 
of  dead  letters.  It  is  something  to  read  the  real, 
bona  fide  signs-manual  of  such  fellows  as  William 
of  Orange,  Count  Egmont,  Alexander  Farnese, 
Philip  II.,  Cardinal  Granvelle,  and  the  rest  of  them. 
It  gives  a  '  realizing  sense,'  as  the  Americans  have  it. 
....  There  are  not  many  public  resources  of  amuse 
ment  in  this  place,  —  if  we  wanted  them,  —  which 
we  don't.  I  miss  the  Dresden  Gallery  very  much, 
and  it  makes  me  sad  to  think  that  I  shall  never 
look  at  the  face  of  the  Sistine  Madonna  again,  — 
that  picture  beyond  all  pictures  in  the  world — in 
which  the  artist  certainly  did  get  to  heaven  and 
painted  a  face  which  was  never  seen  on  earth  —  so 

pathetic,  so  gentle,  so  passionless,  so  prophetic 

There  are  a  few  good  Eubenses  here,  —  but  the 
great  wealth  of  that  master  is  in  Antwerp.  The 
great  picture  of  the  Descent  from  the  Cross  is  free 
again  after  having  been  ten  years  in  the  repair 
ing  room.  It  has  come  out  in  very  good  condi 
tion.  What  a  picture  !  It  seems  to  me  as  if  I 
had  really  stood  at  the  cross  and  seen  Mary  weep- 


72 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


ing  on  John's  shoulder,  and  Magdalen  receiving  the 
dead  body  of  the  Saviour  in  her  arms.  Never  was 
the  grand  tragedy  represented  in  so  profound  and 
dramatic  a  manner.  For  it  is  not  only  in  his  color 
in  which  this  man  so  easily  surpasses  all  the  world, 
but  in  his  life-like,  flesh-and-blood  action,  —  the 
tragic  power  of  his  composition.  And  is  it  not 
appalling  to  think  of  the  "large  constitution  of 
this  man,"  when  you  reflect  on  the  acres  of  canvas 
which  he  has  covered  ?  How  inspiriting  to  see 
with  what  muscular,  masculine  vigor  this  splendid 
Fleming  rushed  in  and  plucked  up  drowning  Art 
by  the  locks  when  it  was  sinking  in  the  trashy  sea 
of  such  creatures  as  the  Luca  Giordanos  and  Pietro 
Cortonas  and  the  like.  Well  might  Guido  exclaim, 

'  The  fellow  mixes  blood  with  his  colors ! ' How 

providentially  did  the  man  come  in  and  invoke  liv 
ing,  breathing,  moving  men  and  women  out  of  his 
canvas  !  Sometimes  he  is  ranting  and  exaggerated, 
as  are  all  men  of  great  genius  who  wrestle  with 
Nature  so  boldly.  No  doubt  his  heroines  are  more 
expansively  endowed  than  would  be  thought  gen 
teel  in  our  country,  where  cryptogams  are  so  much 
in  fashion,  nevertheless  there  is  always  something 
very  tremendous  about  him,  and  very  often  much 
that  is  sublime,  pathetic,  and  moving.  I  defy  any 
one  of  the  average  amount  of  imagination  and  sen 
timent  to  stand  long  before  the  Descent  from  the 


A  Memoir. 


73 


Cross  without  being  moved  more  nearly  to  tears 
than  he  would  care  to  acknowledge.  As  for  color, 
his  effects  are  as  sure  as  those  of  the  sun  rising  in 
a  tropical  landscape.  There  is  something  quite 
genial  in  the  cheerful  sense  of  his  own  omnipo 
tence  which  always  inspired  him.  There  are  a  few 
fine  pictures  of  his  here,  and  I  go  in  sometimes 
of  a  raw,  foggy  morning  merely  to  warm  myself  in 
the  blaze  of  their  beauty." 

I  have  been  more  willing  to  give  room  to  this 
description  of  Eubens's  pictures  and  the  effect  they 
produced  upon  Motley,  because  there  is  a  certain 
affinity  between  those  sumptuous  and  glowing 
works  of  art  and  the  prose  pictures  of  the  historian 
who  so  admired  them.  He  was  himself  a  colorist 
in  language,  and  called  up  the  image  of  a  great  per 
sonage  or  a  splendid  pageant  of  the  past  with  the 
same  affluence,  the  same  rich  vitality,  that  floods 
and  warms  the  vast  areas  of  canvas  over  which  the 
full-fed  genius  of  Eubens  disported  itself  in  the 
luxury  of  imaginative  creation. 


74 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


XL 

Publication  of  his  first  Historical  Work,  "Rise  of 
the  Dutch  Republic."  —  Its  Reception.  —  Critical 
Notices.  —  His  Visit  to  America.  (1856-1857.) 

THE  labor  of  ten  years  was  at  last  finished. 
Carrying  his  formidable  manuscript  with  him, — 
and  how  formidable  the  manuscript  which  melts 
down  into  three  solid  octavo  volumes  is,  only  writers^ 
and  publishers  know,  —  he  knocked  at  the  gate  of 
that  terrible  fortress  from  which  Lintot  and  Curll 
and  Tonson  looked  down  on  the  authors  of  an  older 
generation.  So  large  a  work  as  the  History  of  the 
Rise  of  the  Dutch  Eepublic,  offered  for  the  press  by 
an  author  as  yet  unknown  to  the  British  public, 
could  hardly  expect  a  warm  welcome  from  the  great 
dealers  in  literature  as  merchandise.  Mr.  Murray 
civilly  declined  the  manuscript  which  was  offered 
to  him,  and  it  was  published  at  its  author's  expense 
by  Mr.  John  Chapman.  The  time  came  when  the 
positions  of  the  first-named  celebrated  publisher  and 
the  unknown  writer  were  reversed.  Mr.  Murray 
wrote  to  Mr.  Motley  asking  to  be  allowed  to  publish 
his  second  great  work,  the  History  of  the  United 


A  Memoir. 


Netherlands,  expressing  at  the  same  time  his  regret 
at  what  he  candidly  called  his  mistake  in  the  first 
instance,  and  thus  they  were  at  length  brought  into 
business  connection  as  well  as  the  most  agreeable 
and  friendly  relations.  An  American  edition  was 
published  by  the  Harpers  at  the  same  time  as  the 
London  one. 

If  the  new  work  of  the  unknown  author  found  it 
difficult  to  obtain  a  publisher,  it  was  no  sooner 
given  to  the  world  than  it  found  an  approving,  an 
admiring,  an  enthusiastic  world  of  readers,  and  a 
noble  welcome  at  the  colder  hands  of  the  critics. 

The  Westminster  Eeview  for  April,  1856,  had  for 
its  leading  article  a  paper  by  Mr.  Froude,  in  which 
the  critic  awarded  the  highest  praise  to  the  work 
of  the  new  historian.  As  one  of  the  earliest  as  well 
as  one  of  the  most  important  recognitions  of  the 
work,  I  quote  some  of  its  judgments. 

"  A  history  as  complete  as  industiy  and  genius 
can  make  it  now  lies  before  us  of  the  first  twenty 
years  of  the  Eevolt  of  the  United  Provinces ;  of  the 
period  in  which  those  provinces  finally  conquered 
their  independence  and  established  the  Republic  of 
Holland.  It  has  been  the  result  of  many  years 
of  silent,  thoughtful,  unobtrusive  labor,  and  unless 
we  are  strangely  mistaken,  unless  we  are  our 
selves  altogether  unfit  for  this  office  of  criticising 
which  we  have  here  undertaken,  the  book  is  one 


76 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


which  will  take  its  place  among  the  finest  histories 

in  this  or  in  any  language All  the  essentials 

of  a  great  writer  Mr.  Motley  eminently  possesses. 
His  mind  is  broad,  his  industry  unwearied.  In 
power  of  dramatic  description  no  modern  historian, 
except  perhaps  Mr.  Carlyle,  surpasses  him,  and  in 
analysis  of  character  he  is  elaborate  and  distinct. 
His  principles  are  those  of  honest  love  for  all  which 
is  good  and  admirable  in  human  character  wherever 
he  finds  it,  while  he  unaffectedly  hates  oppression, 
and  despises  selfishness  with  all  his  heart." 

After  giving  a  slight  analytical  sketch  of  the 
series  of  events  related  in  the  history,  Mr.  Froude 
objects  to  only  one  of  the  historian's  estimates, 
that,  namely,  of  the  course  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  "  It 
is  ungracious,  however,"  he  says,  "  even  to  find  so 
slight  a  fault  with  these  admirable  volumes.  Mr. 
Motley  has  written  without  haste,  with  the  leisurely 
composure  of  a  master.  ....  We  now  take  our 
leave  of  Mr.  Motley,  desiring  him  only  to  accept 
our  hearty  thanks  for  these  volumes,  which  we 
trust  will  soon  take  their  place  in  every  English 
library.  Our  quotations  will  have  sufficed  to  show 
the  ability  of  the  writer.  Of  the  scope  and  general 
character  of  his  work  we  have  given  but  a  languid 
conception.  The  true  merit  of  a  great  book  must 
be  learned  from  the  book  itself.  Our  part  has  been 
rather  to  select  varied  specimens  of  style  and  power. 


A  Memoir. 


77 


Of  Mr.  Motley's  antecedents  we  know  nothing.  If 
he  has  previously  appeared  before  the  public,  his 
reputation  has  not  crossed  the  Atlantic.  It  will 
not  be  so  now.  "We  believe  that  we  may  promise 
him  as  warm  a  welcome  among  ourselves  as  he  will 
receive  even  in  America ;  that  his  place  will  be  at 
once  conceded  to  him  among  the  first  historians  in 
our  common  language." 

The  faithful  and  unwearied  Mr.  Allibone  has 
swept  the  whole  field  of  contemporary  criticism, 
and  shown  how  wide  and  universal  was  the  wel 
come  accorded  to  the  hitherto  unknown  author. 
An  article  headed  "  Prescott  and  Motley,"  attrib 
uted  to  M.  Guizot,  which  must  have  been  translated, 
I  suppose,  from  his  own  language,  judging  by  its 
freedom  from  French  idioms,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Edinburgh  He  view  for  January,  1857.  The  praise, 
not  unmingled  with  criticisms,  which  that  great 
historian  bestowed  upon  Motley  is  less  significant 
than  the  fact  that  he  superintended  a  translation 
of  the  Eise  of  the  Dutch  Eepublic,  and  himself 
wrote  the  Introduction  to  it. 

A  general  chorus  of  approbation  followed  or  ac 
companied  these  leading  voices.  The  reception  of 
the  work  in  Great  Britain  was  a  triumph.  On  the 
Continent,  in  addition  to  the  tribute  paid  to  it  by 
M.  Guizot,  it  was  translated  into  Dutch,  into  Ger- 


78 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


man,  and  into  Eussian.  At  home  his  reception 
was  not  less  hearty.  The  North  American  Review, 
which  had  set  its  foot  on  the  semi-autobiographical 
medley  which  he  called  "  Morton's  Hope,"  which 
had  granted  a  decent  space  and  a  tepid  recognition 
to  his  "  semi-historical "  romance,  in  which  he  ha ' 
already  given  the  reading  public  a  taste  of  his 
quality  as  a  narrator  of  real  events  and  a  delineator 
of  real  personages,  —  this  old  and  awe-inspiring 
New  England  and  more  than  New  England  repre 
sentative  of  the  Fates,  found  room  for  a  long  and  most 
laudatory  article,  in  which  the  son  of  one  of  our 
most  distinguished  historians  did  the  honors  of  the 
venerable  literary  periodical  to  the  new-comer,  for 
whom  the  folding-doors  of  all  the  critical  head 
quarters  were  flying  open  as  if  of  themselves.  Mr. 
Allibone  has  recorded  the  opinions  of  some  of  our 
best  scholars  as  expressed  to  him. 

Dr.  Lieber  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  Allibone  in  the 
strongest  terms  of  praise.  I  quote  one  passage 
which  in  the  light  of  after  events  borrows  a  cruel 
significance. 

"  Congress  and  Parliament  decree  thanks  for 
military  exploits,  —  rarely  for  diplomatic  achieve 
ments.  If  they  ever  voted  their  thanks  for  books, 
—  and  what  deeds  have  influenced  the  course  of  hu 
man  events  more  than  some  books  ?  —  Motley  ought 
to  have  the  thanks  of  our  Congress ;  but  I  doubt 


A  Memoir. 


79 


not  that  he  has  already  the  thanks  of  every  Ameri 
can  who  has  read  the  work.  It  will  leave  its  dis 
tinct  mark  upon  the  American  mind." 

Mr.  Everett  writes :  — 

"Mr.  Motley's  History  of  the  Dutch  Republic 
is  in  my  judgment  a  work  of  the  highest  merit. 
Unwearying  research  for  years  in  the  libraries  of 
Europe,  patience  and  judgment  in  arranging  and 
digesting  his  materials,  a  fine  historical  tact,  much 
skill  in  characterization,  the  perspective  of  narra 
tion,  as  it  may  be  called,  and  a  vigorous  style  unite 
to  make  it  a  very  capital  work,  and  place  the  name 
of  Motley  by  the  side  of  those  of  our  great  histori 
cal  trio,  —  Bancroft,  Irving,  and  Prescott." 

Mr.  Irving,  Mr.  Bancroft,  Mr.  Sumner,  Mr. 
Hillard,  united  their  voices  in  the  same  strain  of 
commendation.  Mr.  Prescott,  whose  estimate  of 
the  new  History  is  of  peculiar  value  for  obvious 
reasons,  writes  to  Mr.  Allibone  thus :  — 

"The  opinion  of  any  individual  seems  super 
fluous  in  respect  to  a  work  on  the  merits  of  which 
the  public  both  at  home  "and  abroad  have  pro 
nounced  so  unanimous  a  verdict.  As  Motley's 
path  crosses  my  own  historic  field,  I  may  be 
thought  to  possess  some  advantage  over  most 
critics  in  my  familiarity  with  the  ground. 

"  However  this  may  be,  I  can  honestly  bear  my 
testimony  to  the  extent  of  his  researches  and  to 


80 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


the  accuracy  with  which  he  has  given  the  results 
of  them  to  the  public.  Far  from  making  his  book 
a  mere  register  of  events,  he  has  penetrated  deep 
below  the  surface  and  explored  the  cause  of  these 
events.  He  has  carefully  studied  the  physiognomy 
of  the  times  and  given  finished  portraits  of  the 
great  men  who  conducted  the  march  of  the  revolu 
tion.  Every  page  is  instinct  with  the  love  of  free 
dom  and  with  that  personal  knowledge  of  the 
working  of  free  institutions  wrhich  could  alone 
enable  him  to  do  justice  to  his  subject.  We  may 
congratulate  ourselves  that  it  was  reserved  for  one 
of  our  countrymen  to  tell  the  story  —  better  than 
it  had  yet  been  told  —  of  this  memorable  revolu 
tion,  which  in  so  many  of  its  features  bears  a  strik 
ing  resemblance  to  our  own." 

The  public  welcomed  the  work  as  cordially  as 
the  critics.  Fifteen  thousand  copies  had  already 
been  sold  in  London  in  1857.  In  America  it  was 
equally  popular.  Its  author  saw  his  name  enrolled 
by  common  consent  among  those  of  the  great 
writers  of  his  time.  Europe  accepted  him,  his 
country  was  proud  to  claim  him,  scholarship  set  its 
jealously  guarded  seal  upon  the  result  of  his  labors, 
the  reading  world,  which  had  not  cared  greatly  for 
his  stories,  hung  in  delight  over  a  narrative  more 
exciting  than  romances;  and  the  lonely  student, 


A  Memoir. 


81 


who  had  almost  forgotten  the  look  of  living  men  in 
the  solitude  of  archives  haunted  by  dead  memories, 
found  himself  suddenly  in  the  full  blaze  of  a  great 
reputation. 


SECTION  XI. 
1856. 


82 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


XII. 

Visit  to  America.  —  Residence  in  Boylston  Place. 
(1856-1857.} 

HE  visited  this  country  in  1856,  and  spent  the 
winter  of  1856-57  in  Boston,  living  with  his  family 
in  a  house  in  Boylston  Place.  At  this  time  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  meeting  him  often,  and  of  seeing 
the  changes  which  maturity,  success,  the  opening 
of  a  great  literary  and  social  career,  had  wrought 
in  his  character  and  bearing.  He  was  in  every 
way  greatly  improved;  the  interesting,  impulsive 
youth  had  ripened  into  a  noble  manhood.  Dealing 
with  great  themes,  his  own  mind  had  gained  their 
dignity.  Accustomed  to  the  company  of  dead 
statesmen  and  heroes,  his  own  ideas  had  risen  to  a 
higher  standard.  The  flattery  of  society  had  added 
a  new  grace  to  his  natural  modesty.  He  was  now 
a  citizen  of  the  world  by  his  reputation ;  the  past 
was  his  province,  in  which  he  was  recognized  as  a 
master ;  the  idol's  pedestal  was  ready  for  him,  but 
he  betrayed  no  desire  to  show  himself  upon  it. 


A  Memoir.  83 


SECT.  XIII. 
1858. 


xni. 

Return  to  England.  —  Social  Relations.  —  Lady  Har- 
court's  Letter.     (1858-1860.) 

DURING  the  years  spent  in  Europe  in  writing  his 
first  History,  from  1851  to  1856,  Mr.  Motley  had 
lived  a  life  of  great  retirement  and  simplicity,'  de 
voting  himself  to  his  work  and  to  the  education 
of  his  children,  to  which  last  object  he  was  always 
ready  to  give  the  most  careful  supervision.  He  was 
as  yet  unknown  beyond  the  circle  of  his  friends,  and 
he  did  not  seek  society.  In  this  quiet  way  he  had 
passed  the  two  years  of  residence  in  Dresden,  the 
year  spent  between  Brussels  and  the  Hague,  and 
a  very  tranquil  year  spent  at  Vevay  on  the  Lake 
of  Geneva.  His  health  at  this  time  was  tolerably 
good,  except  for  nervous  headaches,  which  fre 
quently  recurred  and  were  of  great  severity.  His 
visit  to  England  with  his  manuscript  in  search  of 
a  publisher  has  already  been  mentioned. 

In  1858  he  revisited  England.     His  fame  as  a  £evi,sits, 

England. 

successful  author  was  there  before  him,  and  he  nat 
urally  became  the  object  of  many  attentions.  He 
now  made  many  acquaintances  who  afterwards  be- 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


came  his  kind  and  valued  friends.  Among  those 
mentioned  by  his  daughter,  Lady  Harcourt,  are 
Lord  Lyndhurst,  Lord  and  Lady  Carlisle,  Lady 
William  Eussell,  Lord  and  Lady  Palmerston,  Dean 
Milman,  with  many  others.  The  following  winter 
was  passed  in  Eome,  among  many  English  and 
American  friends. 

"  In  the  course  of  the  next  summer,"  his  daugh 
ter  writes  to  me,  "  we  all  went  to  England,  and  for 
the  next  two  years,  marked  chiefly  by  the  success 
of  the  '  United  Netherlands,'  our  social  life  was 
most  agreeable  and  most  interesting.  He  was  in 
the  fulness  of  his  health  and  powers ;  his  works 
had  made  him  known  in  intellectual  society,  and 
I  think  his  presence,  on  the  other  hand,  increased 
their  effects.  As  no  one  knows  better  than  you  do, 
his  belief  in  his  own  country  and  in  its  institutions 
at  their  best  was  so  passionate  and  intense  that  it  was 
a  part  of  his  nature,  yet  his  refined  and  fastidious 
tastes  were  deeply  gratified  by  the  influences  of  his 
life  in  England,  and  the  spontaneous  kindness  which 
he  received  added  much  to  his  happiness.  At  that 
time  Lord  Palmerston  was  Prime  Minister;  the 
weekly  receptions  at  Cambridge  House  were  the 
centre  of  all  that  was  brilliant  in  the  political  and 
social  world,  while  Lansdowne  House,  Holland 
House,  and  others  were  open  to  the  sommit&  in  all 


A  Memoir. 


85 


branches  of  literature,  science,  rank,  and  politics. 

It  was  the  last  year  of  Lord  Macaulay's  life, 

and  as  a  few  out  of  many  names  which  I  recall  come 
Dean  Milman,  Mr.  Froude  (whose  review  of  the 
Dutch  Republic  in  the  Westminster  was  one  of 
the  first  warm  recognitions  it  ever  received),  the 
Duke  and  Duchess  of  Argyll,  Sir  William  Stirling 
Maxwell,  then  Mr.  Stirling  of  Keir,  the  Sheri 
dan  family  in  its  different  brilliant  members,  Lord 
Wensleydale,  and  many  more." 

There  was  no  society  to  which  Motley  would  not 
have  added  grace  and  attraction  by  his  presence, 
and  to  say  that  he  was  a  welcome  guest  in  the  best 
houses  of  England  is  only  saying  that  these  houses 
are  always  open  to  those  whose  abilities,  characters, 
achievements,'  are  commended  to  the  circles  that 
have  the  best  choice  by  the  personal  gifts  which 
are  nature's  passport  everywhere. 


SECT.  XIII. 
1858. 


Social  life. 


86 


Joltn  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XIV. 
1859. 


Letter  to 
Mr.  Under- 
wood. 


The  Atlantic 
Monthly. 


XIV. 

Letter  to  Mr.  Francis  H.  Underwood.  —  Plan  of  Mr. 
Motley's  Historical  Works.  —  Second  Great  Work, 
"  History  of  the  United  Netherlands"  (1859.) 

I  AM  enabled  by  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Francis  H. 
Underwood  to  avail  myself  of  a  letter  addressed  to 
him  by  Mr.  Motley  in  the  year  before  the  publica 
tion  of  this  second  work,  which  gives  us  an  insight 
into  his  mode  of  working  and  the  plan  he  proposed 
to  follow.  It  begins  with  an  allusion  which  recalls 
a  literary  event  interesting  to  many  of  his  Ameri 
can  friends. 

ROME,  March  4,  1859. 
F.  H.  UNDERWOOD,  ESQ. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  — ....  I  am  delighted  to  hear 
of  the  great  success  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly.  In 
this  remote  region  I  have  not  the  chance  of  reading 
it  as  often  as  I  should  like,  but  from  the  specimens 
which  I  have  seen  I  am  quite  sure  it  deserves  its 
wide  circulation.  A  serial  publication,  the  contents 
of  which  are  purely  original  and  of  such  remarkable 
merit,  is  a  novelty  in  our  country,  and  I  am  de- 


A  Memoir. 


87 


lighted  to  find  that  it  has  already  taken  so  promi 
nent  a  position  before  the  reading  world 

The  whole  work  [his  history],  of  which  the  three 
volumes  already  published  form  a  part,  will  be 
called  "  The  Eighty  Years'  War  for  Liberty." 

Epoch  I.  is  the  Else  of  the  Dutch  Kepublic. 

Epoch  II.  Independence  Achieved.     From  the  Death 

of  William  the  Silent  tiU    the  Twelve 

Years'  Truce.     1584-1609. 
Epoch  III.  Independence  Recognized.    From  the  Twelve 

Years'  Truce  to  the  Peace  of  Westphalia. 

1609-1648. 

My  subject  is  a  very  vast  one,  for  the  struggle  of 
the  United  Provinces  with  Spain  was  one  in  which 
all  the  leading  states  of  Europe  were  more  or  less 
involved.  After  the  death  of  "William  the  Silent, 
the  history  assumes  world-wide  proportions.  Thus 
the  volume  which  I  am  just  about  terminating .... 
is  almost  as  much  English  history  as  Dutch.  The 
Earl  of  Leicester,  very  soon  after  the  death  of 
Orange,  was  appointed  governor  of  the  provinces, 
and  the  alliance  between  the  two  countries  almost 
amounted  to  a  political  union.  I  shall  try  to  get 
the  whole  of  the  Leicester  administration,  terminat 
ing  with  the  grand  drama  of  the  Invincible  Armada, 
into  one  volume ;  but  I  doubt,  my  materials  are  so 
enormous.  I  have  been  personally  very  hard  at 


SECT.  XIV. 
1839. 


Letter  to 
Mr.  Under 
wood. 


Plans  for  a 

great  his 
tory. 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


work,  nearly  two  years,  ransacking  the  British  State 
Paper  Office,  the  British  Museum,  and  the  Holland 
archives,  and  I  have  had  two  copyists  constantly 
engaged  in  London,  and  two  others  at  the  Hague. 
Besides  this,  I  passed  the  whole  of  last  winter  at 
Brussels,  where,  by  special  favor  of  the  Belgian 
Government,  I  was  allowed  to  read  what  no  one  else 
has  ever  been  permitted  to  see,  —  the  great  mass 
of  copies  taken  by  that  Government  from  the  Si- 
mancas  archives,  a  translated  epitome  of  which  has 
been  published  by  Gachard.  This  correspondence 
reaches  to  the  death  of  Philip  II.,  and  is  of  immense 
extent  and  importance.  Had  I  not  obtained  leave 
to  read  the  invaluable  and,  for  my  purpose,  indis 
pensable  documents  at  Brussels,  I  should  have  gone 
to  Spain,  for  they  will  not  be  published  these 
twenty  years,  and  then  only  in  a  translated  and 
excessively  abbreviated  and  unsatisfactory  form. 
I  have  read  the  whole  of  this  correspondence, 
and  made  very  copious  notes  of  it.  In  truth,  I 
devoted  three  months  of  last  winter  to  that  pur 
pose  alone. 

The  materials  I  have  collected  from  the  English 
archives  are  also  extremely  important  and  curious. 
I  have  hundreds  of  interesting  letters  never  pub 
lished  or  to  be  published,  by  Queen  Elizabeth, 
Burghley,  "Walsingham,  Sidney,  Drake,  Willoughby, 
Leicester,  and  others.  For  the  whole  of  that  por- 


A  Memoir. 


89 


tion  of  my  subject  in  which  Holland  and  England 
were  combined  into  one  whole,  to  resist  Spain  in 
its  attempt  to  obtain  the  universal  empire,  I  have 
very  abundant  collections.  For  the  history  of  the 
United  Provinces  is  not  at  all  a  provincial  history. 
It  is  the  history  of  European  liberty.  Without  the 
struggle  of  Holland  and  England  against  Spain,  all 
Europe  might  have  been  Catholic  and  Spanish.  It 
was  Holland  that  saved  England  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  and,  by  so  doing,  secured  the  triumph  of 
the  Eeformation,  and  placed  the  independence  of 
the  various  states  of  Europe  upon  a  sure  foundation. 
Of  course,  the  materials  collected  by  me  at  the 
Hague  are  of  great  importance.  As  a  single  speci 
men,  I  will  state  that  I  found  in  the  archives  there 
an  immense  and  confused  mass  of  papers,  which 
turned  out  to  be  the  autograph  letters  of  Olden 
Barneveld  during  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  ; 
during,  in  short,  the  whole  of  that  most  important 
period  which  preceded  his  execution.  These  letters 
are  in  such  an  intolerable  handwriting  that  no  one 
has  ever  attempted  to  read  them.  I  could  read 
them  only  imperfectly  myself,  and  it  would  have 
taken  me  a  very  long  time  to  have  acquired  the 
power  to  do  so ;  but  my  copyist  and  reader  there  is 
the  most  patient  and  indefatigable  person  alive,  and 
he  has  quite  mastered  the  handwriting,  and  he 
writes  me  that  they  are  a  mine  of  historical  wealth 


90 


John  Lotkrop  Motley. 


for  me.  I  shall  have  complete  copies  before  I  get 
to  that  period,  one  of  signal  interest,  and  which  has 
never  been  described.  I  mention  these  matters  that 
you  may  see  that  my  work,  whatever  its  other  value 
may  be,  is  built  upon  the  only  foundation  fit  for 
history,  —  original  contemporary  documents.  These 
are  all  unpublished.  Of  course,  I  use  the  contem 
porary  historians  and  pamphleteers, —  Dutch,  Span 
ish,  French,  Italian,  German,  and  English,  —  but 
the  most  valuable  of  my  sources  are  manuscript 
ones.  I  have  said  the  little  which  I  have  said  in 
order  to  vindicate  the  largeness  of  the  subject.  The 
kingdom  of  Holland  is  a  small  power  now,  but  the 
Eighty  Years'  War,  which  secured  the  civil  and 
religious  independence  of  the  Dutch  Commonwealth 
and  of  Europe,  was  the  great  event  of  that  whole 
age. 

The  whole  work  will  therefore  cover  a  most  re 
markable  epoch  in  human  history,  from  the  abdica 
tion  of  Charles  Fifth  to  the  Peace  of  Westphalia, 
at  which  last  point  the  political  and  geographical 
arrangements  of  Europe  were  established  on  a  per 
manent  basis,  —  in  the  main  undisturbed  until  the 
French  Revolution 

I  will  mention  that  I  received  yesterday  a  letter 
from  the  distinguished  M.  Guizot,  informing  me 
that  the  first  volume  of  the  French  translation, 
edited  by  him,  with  an  introduction,  has  just  been 


A  Memoir. 


91 


published.  The  publication  was  hastened  in  con 
sequence  of  the  appearance  of  a  rival  translation  at 
Brussels.  The  German  translation  is  very  elegantly 
and  expensively  printed  in  handsome  octavos ;  and 
the  Dutch  translation,  under  the  editorship  of  the 
archivist  general  of  Holland,  Bakhuyzen  v.  d.  Brink, 
is  enriched  with  copious  notes  and  comments  by 
that  distinguished  scholar. 

There  are  also  three  different  piratical  reprints 
of  the  original  work  at  Amsterdam,  Leipzig,  and 
London.  I  must  add  that  I  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  translation  in  any  case.  In  fact,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  M.  Guizot,  no  one  ever  obtained  permis 
sion  of  me  to  publish  translations,  and  I  never 
knew  of  the  existence  of  them  until  I  read  of  it  in 

the  journals I  forgot  to  say  that  among  the 

collections  already  thoroughly  examined  by  me  is 
that  portion  of  the  Simancas  archives  still  retained 
in  the  Imperial  archives  of  France.  I  spent  a 
considerable  time  in  Paris  for  the  purpose  of  read 
ing  >  these  documents.  There  are  many  letters  of 
Philip  II.  there,  with  apostilles  by  his  own  hand. 
....  I  would  add  that  I  am  going  to  pass  this  sum 
mer  at  Venice  for  the  purpose  of  reading  and  pro 
curing  copies  from  the  very  rich  archives  of  that 
Republic,  of  the  correspondence  of  their  envoys  in 
Madrid,  London,  and  Brussels  during  the  epoch  of 
which  I  am  treating.  I  am  also  not  without  hope 


92 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XIV. 
1859. 


of  gaining  access  to  the  archives  of  the  Vatican 
here,  although  there  are  some  difficulties  in  the 
way. 

With  kind  regards  .... 

I  remain  very  truly  yours, 

J.  L.  MOTLEY. 


A  Memoir. 


93 


XV. 

Publication  of  the  first  two  Volumes  of  the  "History  of 
the  United  Netherlands." —  Their  Reception.  (I860.) 

WE  know  something  of  the  manner  in  which 
Mr.  Motley  collected  his  materials.  We  know  the 
labors,  the  difficulties,  the  cost  of  his  toils  among 
the  dusty  records  of  the  past.  What  he  gained  by 
the  years  he  spent  in  his  researches  is  so  well  stated 
by  himself  that  I  shall  borrow  his  own  words :  — 

"  Thanks  to  the  liberality  of  many  modern  gov 
ernments  of  Europe,  the  archives  where  the  state 
secrets  of  the  buried  centuries  have  so  long  moul 
dered  are  now  open  to  the  student  of  history.  To 
him  who  has  patience  and  industry,  many  myste 
ries  are  thus  revealed  which  no  political  sagacity 
or  critical  acumen  could  have  divined.  He  leans 
over  the  shoulder  of  Philip  the  Second  at  his  writ 
ing-table,  as  the  King  spells  patiently  out,  with 
cipher-key  in  hand,  the  most  concealed  hieroglyph 
ics  of  Parma,  or  Guise,  or  Mendoza.  He  reads  the 
secret  thoughts  of  '  Fabius '  [Philip  II.]  as  that 
cunctative  Roman  scrawls  his  marginal  apostilles 


94 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


on  each  despatch ;  he  pries  into  all  the  stratagems 
of  Camillus,  Hortensius,  Mucius,  Julius,  Tullius, 
and  the  rest  of  those  ancient  heroes  who  lent  their 
names  to  the  diplomatic  masqueraders  of  the  six 
teenth  century ;  he  enters  the  cabinet  of  the  deeply 
pondering  Burghley,  and  takes  from  the  most  pri 
vate  drawer  the  memoranda  which  record  that  min 
ister's  unutterable  doubtings;  he  pulls  from  the 
dressing-gown  folds  of  the  stealthy,  soft-gliding 
Walsingham  the  last  secret  which  he  has  picked 
from  the  Emperor's  pigeon-holes  or  the  Pope's 
pocket,  and  which  not  Hatton,  nor  Buckhurst,  nor 
Leicester,  nor  the  Lord  Treasurer  is  to  see ;  nobody 
but  Elizabeth  herself ;  he  sits  invisible  at  the  most 
secret  councils  of  the  Nassaus  and  Barneveldt  and 
Buys,  or  pores  with  Farnese  over  coming  victories 
and  vast  schemes  of  universal  conquest ;  he  reads 
the  latest  bit  of  scandal,  the  minutest  characteristic 
of  king  or  minister,  chronicled  by  the  gossiping 
Venetians  for  the  edification  of  the  Forty ;  and  after 
all  this  prying  and  eavesdropping,  having  seen  the 
cross-purposes,  the  bribings,  the  windings  in  the 
dark,  he  is  not  surprised  if  those  who  were  syste 
matically  deceived  did  not  always  arrive  at  correct 
conclusions."  (Hist,  of  United  Netherlands,  I.  p.  54.) 

The  fascination  of  such  a  quest  is  readily  conceiv 
able.     A  drama  with  real  characters,  and  the  spec- 


A  Memoir. 


95 


tator  at  liberty  to  go  behind  the  scenes  and  look 
upon  and  talk  with  the  kings  and  queens  between 
the  acts;  to  examine  the  scenery,  to  handle  the 
properties,  to  study  the  "  make  up  "  of  the  imposing 
personages  of  full-dress  histories ;  to  deal  with  them 
all  as  Thackeray  has  done  with  the  Grand  Monarque 
in  one  of  his  caustic  sketches,  —  this  would  be  as- 
exciting,  one  might  suppose,  as  to  sit  through  a 
play  one  knows  by  heart  at  Drury  Lane  or  the  Th4- 
atre  Franqais,  and  might  furnish  occupation  enough 
to  the  curious  idler  who  was  only  in  search  of  enter 
tainment.  The  mechanical  obstacles  of  half-illegi 
ble  manuscript,  of  antiquated  forms  of  speech,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  intentional  obscurities  of  diplo 
matic  correspondence,  stand,  however,  in  the  way  of 
all  but  the  resolute  and  unwearied  scholar.  These 
difficulties,  in  all  their  complex  obstinacy,  had 
been  met  and  overcome  by  the  heroic  efforts,  the 
concentrated  devotion,  of  the  new  laborer  in  the 
unbroken  fields  of  secret  history. 

Without  stopping  to  take  breath,  as  it  were,  — 
for  his  was  a  task  de  longue,  hahine,  —  he  proceeded 
to  his  second  great  undertaking. 

The  first  portion  —  consisting  of  two  volumes  — 
of  the  History  of  the  United  Netherlands  was 
published  in  the  year  1860.  It  maintained  and 
increased  the  reputation  he  had  already  gained  by 
his  first  history. 


96 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


The  London  Quarterly  Review  devoted  a  long 
article  to  it,  beginning  with  this  handsome  tribute 
to  his  earlier  and  later  volumes  :  — 

"  Mr.  Motley's  '  History  of  the  Rise  of  the  Dutch 
Republic'  is  already  known  and  valued  for  the 
grasp  of  mind  which  it  displays,  for  the  earnest 
and  manly  spirit  in  which  he  has  communicated 
the  results  of  deep  research  and  careful  reflection. 
Again  he  appears  before  us,  rich  with  the  spoils  of 
time,  to  tell  the  story  of  the  United  Netherlands 
from  the  time  of  William  the  Silent  to  the  end  of 
the  eventful  year  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  and  we 
still  find  him  in  every  way  worthy  of  this  '  great 
argument.'  Indeed,  it  seems  to  us  that  he  proceeds 
with  an  increased  facility  of  style,  and  with  a  more 
complete  and  easy  command  over  his  materials. 
These  materials  are  indeed  splendid,  and  of  them 
most  excellent  use  has  been  made.  The  English 
State  Paper  Office,  the  Spanish  archives  from  Si- 
mancas,  and  the  Dutch  and  Belgian  repositories, 
have  all  yielded  up  their  secrets  ;  and  Mr.  Motley 
has  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  dealing  with  a  vast 
mass  of  unpublished  documents,  of  which  he  has 
not  failed  to  avail  himself  to  an  extent  which 
places  his  work  in  the  foremost  rank  as  an  authority 
for  the  period  to  which  it  relates.  By  means  of 
his  labor  and  his  art  we  can  sit  at  the  council 


A  Memoir. 


board  of  Philip  and  Elizabeth,  we  can  read  their 
most  private  despatches.  Guided  by  his  demon 
stration,  we  are  enabled  to  dissect  out  to  their  ulti 
mate  issues  the  .minutest  ramifications  of  intrigue. 

.  .. 

We  join  in  the  amusement  of  the  popular  lampoon ; 
we  visit  the  prison-house ;  we  stand  by  the  scaf 
fold  ;  we  are  present  at  the  battle  and  the  siege. 
We  can  scan  the  inmost  characters  of  men  and  can 
view  them  in  their  habits  as  they  lived." 

After  a  few  criticisms  upon  lesser  points  of  form 
and  style,  the  writer  says  :  — 

"  But  the  work  itself  must  be  read  to  appreciate 
the  vast  and  conscientious  industry  bestowed  upon 
it.  His  delineations  are  true  and  life-like,  because 
they  are  not  mere  compositions  written  to  please 
the  ear,  but  are  really  taken  from  the  facts  and 
traits  preserved  in  those  authentic  records  to  which 
he  has  devoted  the  labor  of  many  years.  Diligent 
and  painstaking  as  the  humblest  chronicler,  he  has 
availed  himself  of  many  sources  of  information 
which  have  not  been  made  use  of  by  any  previous 
historical  writer.  At  the  same  time  he  is  not 
oppressed  by  his  materials,  but  has  sagacity  to 
estimate  their  real  value,  and  he  has  combined 
with  scholarly  power  the  facts  which  they  contain. 
He  has  rescued  the  story  of  the  Netherlands  from 
the  domain  of  vague  and  general  narrative,  and  has 
labored,  with  much  judgment  and  ability,  to  unfold 


98 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


the  Belli  canvas,  et  vitia,  et  modos,  and  to  assign  to 
every  man  and  every  event  their  own  share  in  the 
contest,  and  their  own  influence  upon  its  fortunes. 
We  do  not  wonder  that  his  earlier  publication  has 
been  received  as  a  valuable  addition,  not  only  to 
English,  but  to  European  literature."  One  or  two 
other  contemporary  criticisms  may  help  us  with  their 
side  lights.  A  critic  in  the  Edinburgh  Eeview 
for  January,  1861,  thinks  that  "  Mr.  Motley  has 
not  always  been  successful  in  keeping  the  graphic 
variety  of  his  details  subordinate  to  the  main 
theme  of  his  work"  Still,  he  excuses  the  fault, 
as  he  accounts  it,  in  consideration  of  the  new 
light  thrown  on  various  obscure  points  of  his 
tory,  and  "  it  is  atoned  for  by  striking  merits, 
by  many  narratives  of  great  events  faithfully, 
powerfully,  and  vividly  executed,  by  the  clearest 
and  most  life-like  conceptions  of  character,  and 
by  a  style  which,  if  it  sacrifices  the  severer  prin 
ciples  of  composition  to  a  desire  to  be  striking 
and  picturesque,  is  always  vigorous,  full  of  anima 
tion,  and  glowing  with  the  genuine  enthusiasm  of 
the  writer.  Mr.  Motley  combines  as  an  historian 
two  qualifications  seldom  found  united,  —  to  great 
capacity  for  historical  research  he  adds  much  power 
of  pictorial  representation.  In  his  pages  we  find 
characters  and  scenes  minutely  set  forth  in  elabo 
rate  and  characteristic  detail,  which  is  relieved  and 


A  Memoir. 


99 


heightened  in  effect  by  the  artistic  breadth  of  light 
and  shade  thrown  across  the  broader  prospects  of 
history.  In  an  American  author,  too,  we  must 
commend  the  hearty  English  spirit  in  which  the 
book  is  written ;  and  fertile  as  the  present  age  has 
been  in  historical  works  of  the  highest  merit, 
none  of  them  can  be  ranked  above  these  volumes 
in  the  grand  qualities  of  interest,  accuracy,  and 
truth." 

A  writer  in  Blackwood  (May,  1861)  contrasts 
Motley  with  Froude  somewhat  in  the  way  in 
which  another  critic  had  contrasted  him  with 
Prescott.  Froude,  he  says,  remembers  that  there 
are  some  golden  threads  in  the  black  robe  of  the 
Dominican.  Motley  "  finds  it  black  and  thrusts  it 
farther  into  the  darkness." 

Every  writer  carries  more  or  less  of  his  own 
character  into  his  book,  of  course.  A  great  pro 
fessor  has  told  me  that  there  is  a  personal  flavor 
in  the  mathematical  work  of  a  man  of  genius  like 
Poisson.  Those  who  have  known  Motley  and 
Prescott  would  feel  sure  beforehand  that  the  im 
pulsive  nature  of  the  one  and  the  judicial  serenity 
of  the  other  would  as  surely  betray  themselves  in 
their  writings  as  in  their  conversation  and  in  their 
every  movement.  Another  point  which  the  critic 
of  Blackwood's  Magazine  has  noticed  has  not  been 


100 


John  LotJirop  Motley. 


SECTION  XV, 
1860. 

History  of 
the  United 
Netherlands. 


Traces  of  his 
earlier  style. 


so  generally  observed :  it  is  what  he  calls  "  a  dash 
ing,  offhand,  rattling  "  style,  —  "fast "  writing.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  here  and  there  may  be  de 
tected  slight  vestiges  of  the  way  of  writing  of  an 
earlier  period  of  Motley's  literary  life,  with  which 
I  have  no  reason  to  think  the  writer  just  men 
tioned  was  acquainted.  Now  and  then  I  can  trace 
in  the  turn  of  a  phrase,  in  the  twinkle  of  an  epi 
thet,  a  faint  reminiscence  of  a  certain  satirical  lev 
ity,  airiness,  jauntiness,  if  I  may  hint  such  a  word, 
which  is  just  enough  to  remind  me  of  those  per 
ilous  shallows  of  his  early  time  through  which 
his  richly  freighted  argosy  had  passed  with  such 
wonderful  escape  from  their  dangers  and  such  very 
slight  marks  of  injury.  That  which  is  pleasant 
gayety  in  conversation  may  be  quite  out  of  place  in 
formal  composition,  and  Motley's  wit  must  have 
had  a  hard  time  of  it  struggling  to  show  its  span 
gles  in  the  processions  while  his  gorgeous  tragedies 
went  sweeping  by. 


A  Memoir. 


101 


XVI. 

Residence,  in  England.  —  Outbreak  of  the  Civil  War. 
— Letter  to  the  London  Times.  —  Visit  to  Amer 
ica.  —  Appointed  Minister  to  Austria.  —  Lady 
Harcourt's  Letter.  —  Miss  Motley's  Memorandum. 
(1860-1866.) 

THE  winter  of  1859-60  was  passed  chiefly  at 
Oatlands  Hotel,  Walton-on-Thames.  In  1860  Mr. 
Motley  hired  the  house  No.  31  Hertford  Street, 
May  Fair,  London.  He  had  just  published  the 
first  two  volumes  of  his  History  of  the  Nether 
lands,  and  was  ready  for  the  further  labors  of  its 
continuation,  when  the  threats  followed  by  the 
outbreak  of  the  great  civil  contention  in  his  native 
land  brought  him  back  from  the  struggles  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  to  the  conflict 
of  the  nineteenth. 

His  love  of  country,  which  had  grown  upon  him 
so  remarkably  of  late  years,  would  not  suffer  him 
to  be  silent  at  such  a  moment.  All  around  him  he 
found  ignorance  and  prejudice.  The  quarrel  was 
like  to  be  prejudged  in  default  of  a  champion  of 


102 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


the  cause  which  to  him  was  that  of  Liberty  and 
Justice.  He  wrote  two  long  letters  to  the  London 
Times,  in  which  he  attempted  to  make  clear  to 
Englishmen  and  to  Europe  the  nature  and  condi 
tions  of  our  complex  system  of  government,  the 
real  cause  of  the  strife,  and  the  mighty  issues  at 
stake.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  timely, 
nothing  nore  needed.  Mr.  William  Everett,  who 
was  then  in  England,  bears  strong  testimony  to  the 
effect  these  letters  produced.  Had  Mr.  Motley  done 
no  other  service  to  his  country,  this  alone  would 
entitle  him  to  honorable  remembrance  as  among  the 
first  defenders  of  the  flag  which  at  that  moment 
had  more  to  fear  from  what  was  going  on  in  the 
cabinet  councils  of  Europe  than  from  all  the  armed 
hosts  that  were  gathering  against  it. 

He  returned  to  America  in  1861  and  soon  after 
wards  was  appointed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  Minister  to 
Austria.  Mr.  Burlingame  had  been  previously 
appointed  to  the  office,  but  having  been  objected  to 
by  the  Austrian  Government  for  political  reasons, 
the  place  unexpectedly  left  vacant  was  conferred 
upon  Motley,  who  had  no  expectation  of  any  diplo 
matic  appointment  when  he  left  Europe.  For 
some  interesting  particulars  relating  to  his  resi 
dence  in  Vienna  I  must  refer  to  the  communi 
cations  addressed  to  me  by  his  daughter,  Lady 
Harcourt,  and  her  youngest  sister,  and  the  letters 


A  Memoir. 


103 


I  received  from  him  while  residing  in  Vienna. 
Lady  Harcourt  writes  :  — 

"  He  held  the  post  for  six  years,  seeing  the  civil 
war  fought  out  and  brought  to  a  triumphant  con 
clusion,  and  enjoying,  as  I  have  every  reason  to 
believe,  the  full  confidence  and  esteem  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln  to  the  last  hour  of  the  President's  life.  In  the 
first  dark  years  the  painful  interest  of  the  great 
national  drama  was  so  all-absorbing  that  literary 
work  was  entirely  put  aside,  and  with  his  country 
men  at  home  he  lived  only  in  the  varying  fortunes 
of  the  day,  his  profound  faith  and  enthusiasm  sus 
taining  him  and  lifting  him  above  the  natural  in 
fluence  of  a  by  no  means  sanguine  temperament. 
Later,  when  the  tide  was  turning  and  success  was 
nearing,  he  was  more  able  to  work.  His  social 
relations  during  the  whole  period  of  his  mission 
were  of  the  most  agreeable  character.  The  society 
of  Vienna  was  at  that  time,  and  I  believe  is  still, 
the  absolute  reverse  of  that  of  England,  where  all 
claims  to  distinction  are  recognized  and  welcomed. 
There  the  old  feudal  traditions  were  still  in  full 
force,  and  diplomatic  representatives  admitted  to 
the  court  society  by  right  of  official  position  found 
it  to  consist  exclusively  of  an  aristocracy  of  birth, 
sixteen  quarterings  of  nobility  being  necessary  to  a 
right  of  presentation  to  the  Emperor  and  Empress. 
The  society  thus  constituted  was  distinguished  by 


104 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


great  charm  and  grace  of  manner,  the  exclusion  of 
all  outer  elements  not  only  limiting  the  numbers, 
but  giving  the  ease  of  a  family  party  within  the 
charmed  circle.  On  the  other  hand,  larger  interests 
suffered  under  the  rigid  exclusion  of  all  occupations 
except  the  army,  diplomacy,  and  court  place.  The 
intimacy  among  the  different  members  of  the  soci 
ety  was  so  close  that,  beyond  a  courtesy  of  manner 
that  never  failed,  the  tendency  was  to  resist  the 
approach  of  any  stranger  as  a  gene.  A  single  new 
face  was  instantly  remarked  and  commented  on  in 
a  Vienna  saloon  to  an  extent  unknown  in  any  other 
large  capital.  This  peculiarity,  however,  worked 
in  favor  of  the  old  resident.  Kindliness  of  feeling 
increased  with  familiarity  and  grew  into  something 
better  than  acquaintance,  and  the  parting  with 
most  sincere  and  affectionately  disposed  friends 
in  the  end  was  deeply  felt  on  both  sides.  Those 
years  were  passed  in  a  pleasant  house  in  the 
Weiden  Faubourg,  with  a  large  garden  at  the  back, 
and  I  do  not  think  that  during  this  time  there  was 
one  disagreeable  incident  in  his  relations  to  his 
colleagues,  while  in  several  cases  the  relations, 
agreeable  with  all,  became  those  of  close  friendship. 
We  lived  constantly,  of  course,  in  diplomatic  and 
Austrian  society,  and  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
time  particularly  his  house  was  as  much  frequented 
and  the  centre  of  as  many  dancing  and  other  recep- 


A  Memoir. 


105 


tions  as  any  in  the  place.  His  official  relations 
with  the  Foreign  Office  were  courteous  and  agree 
able,  the  successive  Foreign  Ministers  during  his 
stay  being  Count  Richberg,  Count  Mensdorff,  and 
Baron  Beust.  Austria  was  so  far  removed  from 
any  real  contact  with  our  own  country  that,  though 
the  interest  in  our  war  may  have  been  languid, 
they  did  not  pretend  to  a  knowledge  which  might 
have  inclined  them  to  controversy,  while  an  in 
stinct  that  we  were  acting  as  a  constituted  gov 
ernment  against  rebellion  rather  inclined  them  to 
sympathy.  I  think  I  may  say  that  as  he  became 
known  among  them  his  keen  patriotism  and  high 
sense  of  honor  and  truth  were  fully  understood  and 
appreciated,  and  that  what  he  said  always  com 
manded  a  sympathetic  hearing  among  men  with 
totally  different  political  ideas,  but  with  chivalrous 
and  loyal  instincts  to  comprehend  his  own.  I  shall 
never  forget  his  account  of  the  terrible  day  when 
the  news  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  death  came.  By  some 
accident  a  rumor  of  it  reached  him  first  through  a 
colleague.  He  went  straight  to  the  Foreign  Office 
for  news,  hoping  against  hope,  was  received  by 
Count  Mensdorff,  who  merely  came  forward  and 
laid  his  arm  about  his  shoulder  with  an  intense 
sympathy  beyond  words." 

Miss  Motley,  the  historian's  youngest  daughter 
has  added  a  note  to  her  sister's  communication : 


106 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


"  During  his  residence  in  Vienna  the  most  im 
portant  negotiations  which  he  had  to  carry  on  with 
the  Austrian  Government  were  those  connected 
with  the  Mexican  affair.  Maximilian  at  one  time 
applied  to  his  brother  the  Emperor  for  assistance, 
and  he  promised  to  accede  to  his  demand.  Accord 
ingly  a  large  number  of  volunteers  were  equipped 
and  had  actually  embarked  at  Trieste,  when  a  de 
spatch  from  Seward  arrived,  instructing  the  Amer 
ican  Minister  to  give  notice  to  the  Austrian  Gov 
ernment  that  if  the  troops  sailed  for  Mexico  he 
was  to  leave  Vienna  at  once.  My  father  had 
to  go  at  once  to  Count  Mensdorff  with  these  in 
structions,  and  in  spite  of  the  Foreign  Minister 
being  annoyed  that  the  United  States  Government 
had  not  sooner  intimated  that  this  extreme  course 
would  be  taken,  the  interview  was  quite  amicable 
and  the  troops  were  not  allowed  to  sail.  We 
were  in  Vienna  during  the  war  in  which  Den 
mark  fought  alone  against  Austria  and  Prussia, 
and  when  it  was  over  Bismarck  came  to  Vienna 
to  settle  the  terms  of  peace  with  the  Emperor. 
He  dined  with  us  twice  during  his  short  stay  and 
was  most  delightful  and  agreeable.  When  he  and 
my  father  were  together  they  seemed  to  live  over 
the  youthful  days  they  had  spent  together  as 
students,  and  many  were  the  anecdotes  of  their 
boyish  frolics  which  Bismarck  related." 


A  Memoir. 


107 


XVII. 

Letters  from  Vienna.     (1861-1863.) 

SOON  after  Mr.  Motley's  arrival  in  Vienna  I  re 
ceived  a  long  letter  from  him,  most  of  which  relates 
to  personal  matters,  but  which  contains  a  few  sen 
tences  of  interest  to  the  general  reader  as  showing 
his  zealous  labors,  wherever  he  found  himself,  in 
behalf  of  the  great  cause  then  in  bloody  debate 
in  his  own  country :  — 

"  November  14,  1861. 

".  .  .  .  What  can  I  say  to  you  of  cis- Atlantic 
things  ?  I  am  almost  ashamed  to  be  away  from  home. 
You  know  that  I  had  decided  to  remain,  and  had  sent 
for  my  family  to  come  to  America,  when  my  present 
appointment  altered  my  plans.  I  do  what  good  I 
can.  I  think  I  made  some  impression  on  Lord 
John  Eussell,  with  whom  I  spent  two  days  soon 
after  my  arrival  in  England,  and  I  talked  very 
frankly  and  as  strongly  as  I  could  to  Palmerston, 
and  I  have  had  long  conversations  and  correspond 
ences  with  other  leading  men  in  England.  I  have 
also  had  an  hour's  [conversation]  with  Thouvenel 


108 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


in  Paris.  I  hammered  the  Northern  view  into 
him  as  soundly  as  I  could.  For  this  year  there 
will  be  no  foreign  interference  with  us.  I  don't 
anticipate  it  at  any  time,  unless  we  bring  it  on 
ourselves  by  bad  management,  which  I  don't  ex 
pect.  Our  fate  is  in  our  own  hands,  and  Europe 
is  looking  on  to  see  which  side  is  strongest, — 
when  it  has  made  the  discovery  it  will  back  it  as 
also  the  best  and  the  most  moral.  Yesterday  I 
had  my  audience  with  the  Emperor.  He  received 
me  with  much  cordiality,  and  seemed  interested 
in  a  long  account  which  I  gave  him  of  our  affairs. 
You  may  suppose  I  inculcated  the  Northern  views. 
We  spoke  in  his  vernacular,  and  he  asked  me 
afterwards  if  I  was  a  German.  I  mention  this 
not  from  vanity,  but  because  he  asked  it  with 
earnestness,  and  as  if  it  had  a  political  signifi 
cance.  Of  course  I  undeceived  him.  His  ap 
pearance  interested  me,  and  his  manner  is  very 
pleasing." 

I  continued  to  receive  long  and  interesting  letters 
from  him  at  intervals  during  his  residence  as  Min 
ister  at  Vienna.  Relating  as  they  often  did  to 
public  matters,  about  which  he  had  private  sources 
of  information,  his  anxiety  that  they  should  not  get 
into  print  was  perfectly  natural  As,  however,  I 
was  at  liberty  to  read  his  letters  to  others  at  my 


A  Memoir. 


109 


discretion,  and  as  many  parts  of  these  letters  have 
an  interest  as  showing  how  American  affairs  looked 
to  one  who  was  behind  the  scenes  in  Europe,  I  may 
venture  to  give  some  extracts  without  fear  of  vio 
lating  the  spirit  of  his  injunctions,  or  of  giving 
offence  to  individuals.  The  time  may  come  when 
his  extended  correspondence  can  be  printed  in  full 
with  propriety,  but  it  must  be  in  a  future  year  and 
after  it  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  younger 
generation.  Meanwhile,  these  few  glimpses  at  his 
life  and  records  of  his  feelings  and  opinions  will 
help  to  make  the  portrait  of  the  man  we  are  study 
ing  present  itself  somewhat  more  clearly. 

"  LEGATION  OF  THE  U.  S.  A.,  VIENNA,  January  14, 1862. 
"  MY  DEAR  HOLMES,  —  I  have  two  letters  of  yours, 
November  29  and  December  17,  to  express  my 
thanks  for.  It  is  quite  true  that  it  is  difficult  for  me 
to  write  with  the  same  feeling  that  inspires  you,  — 
that  everything  around  the  inkstand  within  a  radius 
of  a  thousand  miles  is  full  of  deepest  interest  to 
writer  and  reader.  I  don't  even  intend  to  try  to 
amuse  you  with  Vienna  matters.  What  is  it  to  you 
that  we  had  a  very  pleasant  dinner-party  last  week 
at  Prince  Esterhazy's,  and  another  this  week  at 
Prince  Liechtenstein's,  and  that  to-morrow  I  am 
to  put  on  my  cocked  hat  and  laced  coat  to  make  a 
visit  to  her  Imperial  Majesty,  the  Empress  Mother, 


110 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


and  that  to-night  there  is  to  be  the  first  of  the 
assembly  balls,  the  Vienna  Almack's,  at  which  —  I 
shall  be  allowed  to  absent  myself  altogether  ? 

"  It  strikes  me  that  there  is  likely  to  be  left  a 
fair  field  for  us  a  few  months  longer,  say  till  mid 
summer.  The  Trent  affair  I  shall  not  say  much 
about,  except  to  state  that  I  have  always  been  for 
giving  up  the  prisoners.  I  was  awfully  afraid, 
knowing  that  the  demand  had  gone  forth,  — 

'  Send  us  your  prisoners  or  you  '11  hear  of  it/ 

that  the  answer  would  have  come  back  in  the  Hot 
spur  vein  — 

'  And  if  the  Devil  come  and  roar  for  them, 
We  will  not  send  them.' 

The  result  would  have  been  most  disastrous,  for  in 
order  to  secure  a  most  trifling  advantage,  —  that  of 
keeping  Mason  and  Slidell  at  Fort  Warren  a  little 
longer,  —  we  should  have  turned  our  backs  on  all 
the  principles  maintained  by  us  when  neutral,  and 
should  have  been  obliged  to  accept  a  war  at  an 

enormous  disadvantage 

"  But  I  hardly  dared  to  hope  that  we  should  have 
obtained  such  a  victory  as  we  have  done.  To  have 
disavowed  the  illegal  transaction  at  once,  —  before 
any  demand  came  from  England,  —  to  have  placed 
that  disavowal  on  the  broad  ground  of  principle 


A  Memoir. 


Ill 


which  we  have  always  cherished,  and  thus  with  a 
clear  conscience,  and  to  our  entire  honor,  to  have 
kept  ourselves  clear  from  a  war  which  must  have 
given  the  Confederacy  the  invincible  alliance  of 
England, — was  exactly  what  our  enemies  in  Eu 
rope  did  not  suppose  us  capable  of  doing.  But 
we  have  done  it  in  the  handsomest  manner,  and 
there  is  not  one  liberal  heart  in  this  hemisphere 
that  is  not  rejoiced,  nor  one  hater  of  us  and  of 
our  institutions  that  is  not  gnashing  his  teeth  with 
rage." 

The  letter  of  ten  close  pages  from  which  I  have 
quoted  these  passages  is  full  of  confidential  infor 
mation,  and  contains  extracts  from  letters  of  leading 
statesmen.  If  its  date  had  been  1762, 1  might  feel 
authorized  in  disobeying  its  injunctions  of  privacy. 
I  must  quote  one  other  sentence,  as  it  shows  his 
animus  at  that  time  towards  a  distinguished  states 
man  of  whom  he  was  afterwards  accused  of  speak 
ing  in  very  hard  terms  by  an  obscure  writer  whose 
intent  was  to  harm  him.  In  speaking  of  the  Trent 
affair,  Mr.  Motley  says  :  "  The  English  premier  has 
been  foiled  by  our  much  maligned  Secretary  of  State, 
of  whom,  on  this  occasion  at  least,  one  has  the  right 
to  say,  with  Sir  Henry  Wotton, — 

His  armor  was  his  honest  thought 
And  simple  truth  his  highest  skill." 


112 


John  Lotkrop  Motley. 


lie  thinks  of 
nothing  but 
American 
a (fairs. 


He  says  at  the  close  of  this  long  letter :  "  I  wish 
I  could  bore  you  about  something  else  but  Ameri 
can  politics.  But  there  is  nothing  else  worth  think 
ing  of  in  the  world.  All  else  is  leather  and  pru 
nella.  We  are  living  over  again  the  days  of  the 
Dutchmen  or  the  seventeenth-century  Englishmen." 

My  next  letter,  of  fourteen  closely  written  pages, 
was  of  similar  character  to  the  last.  Motley  could 
think  of  nothing  but  the  great  conflict.  He  was 
alive  to  every  report  from  America,  listening  too 
with  passionate  fears  or  hopes,  as  the  case  might  be, 
to  the  whispers  not  yet  audible  to  the  world  which 
passed  from  lip  to  lip  of  the  statesmen  who  were 
watching  the  course  of  events  from  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic  with  the  sweet  complacency  of  the 
looker-on  of  Lucretius ;  too  often  rejoicing  in  the 
storm  that  threatened  wreck  to  institutions  and  an 
organization  which  they  felt  to  be  a  standing  menace 
to  the  established  order  of  things  in  their  older  com 
munities. 

A  few  extracts  from  this  very  long  letter  will  be 
found  to  have  a  special  interest  from  the  time  at 
which  they  were  written. 

"LEGATION  OF  U.  S.  A.,  VIENNA,  February  26,  1862. 

"  MY  DEAR  HOLMES,  — ....  I  take  great  pleasure 
in  reading  your  prophecies,  and  intend  to  be  just  as 
free  in  hazarding  my  own,  for,  as  you  say,  our  mor- 


A  Memoir. 


113 


tal  life  is  but  a  string  of  guesses  at  the  future,  and 
no  one  but  an  idiot  would  be  discouraged  at  finding 
himself  sometimes  far  out  in  his  calculations.  If  I 
find  you  signally  right  in  any  of  your  predictions,  be 
sure  that  I  will  congratulate  and  applaud.  If  you 
make  mistakes,  you  shall  never  hear  of  them  again, 
and  I  promise  to  forget  them.  Let  me  ask  the  same 
indulgence  from  you  in  return.  This  is  what  makes 
letter- writing  a  comfort  and  journalizing  dangerous. 
....  The  ides  of  March  will  be  upon  us  before 
this  letter  reaches  you.  We  have  got  to  squash 
the  rebellion  soon  or  be  squashed  forever  as  a  na 
tion.  I  don't  pretend  to  judge  military  plans  or  the 
capacities  of  generals.  But,  as  you  suggest,  perhaps 
I  can  take  a  more  just  view  of  the  whole  picture  of 
the  eventful  struggle  at  this  great  distance  than  do 
those  absolutely  acting  and  suffering  on  the  scene. 
Nor  can  I  resist  the  desire  to  prophesy  any  more 
than  you  can  do,  knowing  that  I  may  prove  utterly 
mistaken.  I  say,  then,  that  one  great  danger  comes 
from  the  chance  of  foreign  interference.  What  will 
prevent  that  ? 

"  Our  utterly  defeating  the  Confederates  in  some 
great  and  conclusive  battle;  or, 

"  Our  possession  of  the  cotton-ports  and  opening 
them  to  European  trade ;  or, 

"  A  most  unequivocal  policy  of  slave  emancipation. 

"  Any  one  of  these  three  conditions  would  stave  off 


114 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XVII. 
1862. 


Letter  from 
Vieuua. 


Slave  eman 
cipation  the 
most  impor 
tant  measure. 


recognition  by  foreign  powers,  until  we  had  our 
selves  abandoned  the  attempt  to  reduce  the  South 
to  obedience. 

"  The  last  measure  is  to  my  mind  the  most  im 
portant.  The  South  has,  by  going  to  war  with  the 
United  States  Government,  thrust  into  our  hands 
against  our  will  the  invincible  weapon  which  con 
stitutional  reasons  had  hitherto  forbidden  us  to 
employ.  At  the  same  time  it  has  given  us  the 
power  to  remedy  a  great  wrong  to  four  millions  of 
the  human  race,  in  which  we  had  hitherto  been 
obliged  to  acquiesce.  We  are  threatened  with  na 
tional  annihilation,  and  defied  to  use  the  only  means 
of  national  preservation. 

"  The  question  is  distinctly  proposed  to  us,  Shall 
slavery  die,  or  the  great  Republic  ?  It  is  most 
astounding  to  me  that  there  can  be  two  opinions  in 
the  free  States  as  to  the  answer. 

"  If  we  do  fall,  we  deserve  our  fate.  At  the  be 
ginning  of  the  contest,  constitutional  scruples  might 
be  respectable.  But  now  we  are  fighting  to  subju- 
that  is,  Slavery. 
I  know  of. 

for  the  Union.  Who  wishes  to  destroy  the  Union  ? 
The  slaveholder,  nobody  else.  Are  we  to  spend 
twelve  hundred  millions,  and  raise  six  hundred 
thousand  soldiers,  in  order  to  protect  slavery  ?  It 
really  does  seem  to  me  too  simple  for  argument.  I 


gate  the  South 

for  nothing  else  that 


We  are  fighting 
We  are  fighting 


A  Memoir. 


115 


am  anxiously  waiting  for  the  coming  Columbus 
who  will  set  this  egg  of  ours  on  end  by  smashing 
in  the  slavery  end.  We  shall  be  rolling  about  in 
every  direction  until  that  is  done.  I  don't  know 
that  it  is  to  be  done  by  proclamation.  Rather  per 
haps  by  facts Well,  I  console  myself  with 

thinking  that  the  people  —  the  American  people, 
at  least  —  is  about  as  wise  collectively  as  less  nu 
merous  collections  of  individuals,  and  that  the  peo 
ple  has  really  declared  emancipation,  and  is  only 
puzzling  how  to  carry  it  into  effect.  After  all,  it 
seems  to  be  a  law  of  Providence,  that  progress 
should  be  by  a  spiral  movement ;  so  that  when  it 
seems  most  tortuous,  we  may  perhaps  be  going  ahead. 
I  am  firm  in  the  faith  that  slavery  is  now  wriggling 
itself  to  death.  With  slavery  in  its  pristine  vigor, 
I  should  think  the  restored  Union  neither  possible 
nor  desirable.  Don't  understand  me  as  not  taking 
into  account  all  the  strategical  considerations  against 
premature  governmental  utterances  on  this  great 
subject.  But  are  there  any  trustworthy  friends  to 
the  Union  among  the  slaveholders  ?  Should  we 
lose  many  Kentuckians  and  Virginians  who  are 
now  with  us,  if  we  boldly  confiscated  the  slaves  of 
all  rebels  ?  —  and  a  confiscation  of  property  which 
has  legs  and  so  confiscates  itself,  at  command,  is  not 
only  a  legal,  but  would  prove  a  very  practical 
measure  in  time  of  war.  In  brief,  the  time  is  fast 


SECT.  XVII. 
1862. 


Letter  from 
Vienna. 


Slavery 

alum',  to 
perish. 


116 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


approaching,  I  think,  when  '  Thorough '  should  be 
written  on  all  our  banners.  Slavery  will  never  ac 
cept  a  subordinate  position.  The  great  Eepublic 
and  Slavery  cannot  both  survive.  We  have  been 
defied  to  mortal  combat,  and  yet  we  hesitate  to  strike. 
These  are  my  poor  thoughts  on  this  great  subject. 
Perhaps  you  will  think  them  crude.  I  was  much 
struck  with  what  you  quote  from  Mr.  Conway,  that 
if  emancipation  was  proclaimed  on  the  Upper  Mis 
sissippi  it  would  be  known  to  the  negroes  of  Louis 
iana  in  advance  of  the  telegraph.  And  if  once  the 
blacks  had  leave  to  run,  how  many  whites  would 
have  to  stay  at  home  to  guard  their  dissolving 
property  ? 

"  You  have  had  enough  of  my  maunderings.  But 
before  I  conclude  them,  may  I  ask  you  to  give  all 
our  kindest  regards  to  Lowell,  and  to  express  our 
admiration  for  the  Yankee  Idyl.  I  am  afraid  of 
using  too  extravagant  language  if  I  say  all  I  think 
about  it.  Was  there  ever  anything  more  stinging, 
more  concentrated,  more  vigorous,  more  just  ?  He 
has  condensed  into  those  few  pages  the  essence  of 
a  hundred  diplomatic  papers  and  historical  disqui 
sitions  and  Fourth  of  July  orations.  I  was  dining 
a  day  or  two  since  with  his  friend  Lytton  (Bulwer's 
son,  attache  here)  and  Julian  Fane  (Secretaiy  of 
the  embassy),  both  great  admirers  of  him,  —  and 
especially  of  the  Biglow  Papers,  —  they  begged  me 


A  Memoir. 


117 


to  send  them  the  Mason  and  Slidell  Idyl,  but 
I  would  n't,  —  I  don't  think  it  is  in  English  na 
ture  (although  theirs  is  very  cosmopolitan  and 
liberal)  to  take  such  punishment  and  come  up 
smiling.  I  would  rather  they  got  it  in  some 
other  way,  and  then  told  me  what  they  thought 
voluntarily. 

"  I  have  very  pleasant  relations  with  all  the  J.  B.'s 
here.  They  are  all  friendly  and  well  disposed  to 
the  North,  —  I  speak  of  the  embassy,  which,  with 

the  ambassador  and dress  numbers  eight  or  ten 

souls,  —  some  of  them  very  intellectual  ones.  There 
are  no  other  J.  B.'s  here.  I  have  no  fear  at  present 
of  foreign  interference.  "We  have  got  three  or  four 
months  to  do  our  work  in, — a  fair  field  and  no 
favor.  There  is  no  question  whatever  that  the 
Southern  Commissioners  have  been  thoroughly 
snubbed  in  London  and  Paris.  There  is  to  be  a 
blockade  debate  in  Parliament  next  week,  but  no 
bad  consequences  are  to  be  apprehended.  The 
Duke  de  Gramont  (French  Ambassador,  and  an  in 
timate  friend  of  the  Emperor)  told  my  wife  last 
night  that  it  was  entirely  false  that  the  Emperor 
had  ever  urged  the  English  government  to  break 
the  blockade.  '  Don't  believe  it,  —  don't  believe  a 
word  of  it,'  he  said.  He  has  always  held  that  lan 
guage  to  me.  He  added  that  Prince  Napoleon  had 
just  come  out  with  a  strong  speech  about  us, — you 


118 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XVII. 
1862. 


Letter  from 
Vienna. 


The  Arch 
duke  Maxi 
milian. 


His  charac 
ter. 


His  travels. 


will  see  it,  doubtless,  before  you  get  this  letter,  — 
but  it  has  not  yet  reached  us. 

"  Shall  I  say  anything  of  Austria,  —  what  can  I 
say  that  would  interest  you?  That's  the  reason 
why  I  hate  to  write.  All  my  thoughts  are  in 
America.  Do  you  care  to  know  about  the  Arch 
duke  Ferdinand  Maximilian,  that  shall  be  King 
hereafter  of  Mexico  (if  L.  N.  has  his  way)  ?  He  is 
next  brother  to  the  Emperor,  but  although  I  have 
had  the  honor  of  private  audiences  of  many  arch 
dukes  here,  this  one  is  a  resident  of  Trieste. 

"  He  is  about  thirty,  —  has  an  adventurous  dispo 
sition,  —  some  imagination,  —  a  turn  for  poetry,  — 
has  voyaged  a  good  deal  about  the  world  in  the 
Austrian  ship-of-war,  —  for  in  one  respect  he  much 
resembles  that  unfortunate  but  anonymous  ancestor 
of  his,  the  King  of  Bohemia  with  the  seven  castles, 
who,  according  to  Corporal  Trim,  had  such  a  passion 
for  navigation  and  sea-affairs, '  with  never  a  seaport 
in  all  his  dominions.'  But  now  the  present  King  of 
Bohemia  has  got  the  sway  of  Trieste,  and  is  Lord 
High  Admiral  and  Chief  of  the  Marine  Depart 
ment.  He  has  been  much  in  Spain,  also  in  South 
America,  —  I  have  read  some  travels,  Eeise  Skizzen, 
of  his  —  printed,  not  published.  They  are  not  with 
out  talent,  and  he  ever  and  anon  relieves  his  prose 
jog-trot  by  breaking  into  a  canter  of  poetry.  He 
adores  bull-fights,  and  rather  regrets  the  Inquisi- 


A  Memoir. 


119 


tion,  and  considers  the  Duke  of  Alva  everything 
noble  and  chivalrous,  and  the  most  abused  of  men. 
It  would  do  your  heart  good  to  hear  his  invocations 
to  that  deeply  injured  shade,  and  his  denunciations 
of  the  ignorant  and  vulgar  protestants  who  have 
defamed  him.  (N.  B.  Let  me  observe  that  the  E. 
of  the  D.  R  was  not  published  until  long  after  the 
Eeise  Skizzen  were  written.)  Du  armer  Alva! 
weil  du  dem  Willen  deines  Herrn  unerschiitterlich 
treu  wast,  weil  die  festbestimmteu  grundsatze  der 
Eegierung,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  You  can  imagine  the 
rest. 

"  Dear  me !  I.  wish  I  could  get  back  to  the  six 
teenth  and  seventeenth  century But  alas ! 

the  events  of  the  nineteenth  are  too  engrossing. 

"  If  Lowell  cares  to  read  this  letter,  will  you  allow 
me  to  'make  it  over  to  him  jointly,'  as  Captain 
Cuttle  says.  I  wished  to  write  to  him,  but  I  am 
afraid  only  you  would  tolerate  my  writing  so  much 
when  I  have  nothing  to  say.  If  he  would  ever  send 
me  a  line  I  should  be  infinitely  obliged,  and  would 
quickly  respond.  We  read  the  'Washers  of  the 
Shroud '  with  fervid  admiration. 

"Always  remember  me  most  sincerely  to  the  Club, 
one  and  all.  It  touches  me  nearly  when  you  assure 
me  that  I  am  not  forgotten  by  them.  To-morrow 
is  Saturday  and  the  last  of  the  month*  We  are 

*  See  Appendix  A. 


120 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XVII 
1862. 


Another  let 
ter  from 
Vienna. 


He  has  no 
doubt  as  to 
the  result  of 
the  war. 


going  to  dine  with  our  Spanish  colleague.  But 
the  first  bumper  of  the  Don's  champagne  I  shall 
drain  to  the  health  of  my  Parker  House  friends." 

From  another  long  letter  dated  August  31, 1862, 
I  extract  the  following  passages  :  — 

"  I  quite  agree  in  all  that  you  said  in  your  last 
letter.  '  The  imp  of  secession  can't  re-enter  its 
mother's  womb.'  It  is  merely  childish  to  talk  of 
the  Union  '  as  it  was.'  You  might  as  well  bring 
back  the  Saxon  Heptarchy.  But  the  Great  Ee- 
public  is  destined  to  live  and  flourish,  I  can't  doubt. 
....  Do  you  remember  that  wonderful  scene  in 
Faust  in  which  Mephistopheles  draws  wine  for  the 
rabble  with  a  gimlet  out  of  the  wooden  table ;  and 
how  it  changes  to  fire  as  they  drink  it,  and  how 
they  all  go  mad,  draw  their  knives,  grasp  each  other 
by  the  nose,  and  think  they  are  cutting  off  bunches 
of  grapes  at  every  blow,  and  how  foolish  they  all 
look  when  they  awake  from  the  spell  and  see  how 
the  Devil  has  been  mocking  them  ?  It  always 
seems  to  me  a  parable  of  the  great  Secession. 

"  I  repeat,  I  can't  doubt  as  to  the  ultimate  result. 
But  I  dare  say  we  have  all  been  much  mistaken  in 
our  calculations  as  to  time.  Days,  months,  years, 
are  nothing  in  history.  Men  die,  man  is  immortal, 
practically,  even  on  this  earth.  "We  are  so  impa 
tient, —  and  we  are  always  watching  for  the  last 
scene  of  the  tragedy.  Now  I  humbly  opine  that  the 


A  Memoir. 


121 


drop  is  only  about  falling  on  the  first  act,  or  per 
haps  only  the  prologue.  This  act  or  prologue  will 
be  called,  in  after  days,  War  for  the  status  quo. 

"  Such  enthusiasm,  heroism,  and  manslaughter  as 
status  quo  could  inspire,  has,  I  trust,  been  not  en 
tirely  in  vain,  but  it  has  been  proved  insufficient. 

"  I  firmly  believe  that  when  the  slaveholders  de 
clared  war  on  the  United  States  Government  they 
began  a  series  of  events  that,  in  the  logical  chain  of 
history,  cannot  come  to  a  conclusion  until  the  last 
vestige  of  slavery  is  gone.  Looking  at  the  whole 
field  for  a  moment  dispassionately,  objectively,  as 
the  dear  Teutonic  philosophers  say,  and  merely  as 
an  exhibition  of  phenomena,  I  cannot  imagine  any 
other  issue.  Everything  else  may  happen.  This 
alone  must  happen. 

"  But  after  all  this  is  n't  a  war.  It  is  a  revolu 
tion.  It  is  n't  strategists  that  are  wanted  so  much 
as  believers.  In  revolutions  the  men  who  win  are 
those  who  are  in  earnest.  Jeff  and  Stonewall  and 
the  other  Devil- worshippers  are  in  earnest,  but  it 
was  not  written  in  the  book  of  fate  that  the  slave 
holders'  rebellion  should  be  vanquished  by  a  pro- 
slavery  general.  History  is  never  so  illogical.  No, 
the  coming  'man  on  horseback '  on  our  side  must 
be  a  great  strategist,  with  the  soul  of  that  insane 
lion,  mad  old  John  Brown,  in  his  belly.  That  is 
your  only  Promethean  recipe :  — 


122 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


tocr.  XVII. 

1852. 


Another 
letter  from 
Vienna. 


Refers  to  the 
death  of 
Wilder 
Dwighb 


'  et  insani  leonis 
Vim  stomach o  apposuisse  nostro.' 

"  I  don't  know  why  Horace  runs  so  in  my  head 
this  morning.  .... 

"  There  will  be  work  enough  for  all  —  hut  I  feel 
awfully  fidgety  just  now  ahout  Port  Eoyal  and 
Hilton  Head,  and  ahout  affairs  generally  for  the 
next  three  months.  After  that  iron-clads  and  the 
new  levies  must  make  us  invincible." 

In  another  letter,  dated  November  2,  1862,  he 
expresses  himself  very  warmly  about  his  disap 
pointment  in  the  attitude  of  many  of  his  old  Eng 
lish  friends  with  reference  to  our  civil  conflict. 
He  had  recently  heard  the  details  of  the  death  of 
"  the  noble  Wilder  Dwight." 

"  It  is  unnecessary,"  he  says,  "  to  say  how  deeply 
we  were  moved.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing 
him  well,  and  I  always  appreciated  his  energy,  his 
manliness,  and  his  intelligent  cheerful  heroism.  I 
look  back  upon  him  now  as  a  kind  of  heroic  type 
of  what  a  young  New-Englander  ought  to  be  and 
was.  I  tell  you  that  one  of  these  days  —  after  a 
generation  of  mankind  has  passed  away  —  these 
youths  will  take  their  places  in  our  history  and  be 
regarded  by  the  young  men  and  women  now  unborn 
with  the  admiration  which  the  Philip  Sidneys  and 
the  Max  Piccolominis  now  inspire.  After  all, 
what  was  your  Chevy  Chace  to  stir  blood  with  like 


A  Memoir. 


123 


a  trumpet  ?  What  noble  principle,  what  deathless 
interest,  was  there  at  stake  ?  Nothing  but  a  bloody 
fight  between  a  lot  of  noble  gamekeepers  on  one 
side  and  of  noble  poachers  on  the  other.  And  be 
cause  they  fought  well  and  hacked  each  other  to 
pieces  like  devils,  they  have  been  heroes  for  cen 
turies." 

The  letter  was  written  in  a  very  excited  state  of 
feeling,  and  runs  over  with  passionate  love  of  coun 
try  and  indignation  at  the  want  of  sympathy  with 
the  cause  of  freedom  which  he  had  found  in  quar 
ters  where  he  had  not  expected  such  coldness  or 
hostile  tendencies. 

From  a  letter  dated  Vienna,  September  22,  1863. 

" .  .  . .  When  you  wrote  me  last  you  said  on  gen 
eral  matters  this :  '  In  a  few  days  we  shall  get  the 
news  of  the  success  or  failure  of  the  attacks  on 
Port  Hudson  and  Vicksburg.  If  both  are  success 
ful,  many  will  say  that  the  whole  matter  is  about 
settled.'  You  may  suppose  that  when  I  got  the 
great  news  I  shook  hands  warmly  with  you  in  the 
spirit  across  the  Atlantic.  Day  by  day  for  so  long 
we  had  been  hoping  to  hear  the  fall  of  Vicksburg. 
At  last  when  that  little  concentrated  telegram  came 
announcing  Vicksburg  and  Gettysburg  on  the  same 
day  and  in  two  lines,  I  found  myself  almost  alone. 
....  There  was  nobody  in  the  house  to  join  in  my 
huzzahs  but  my  youngest  infant.  And  my  con- 


SECT.  XVII. 
1868. 


Letter  from 
Vienna. 


Viclcsburg 
and  Gettys 
burg. 


124 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


SECT.  XVII. 
1863. 


Letter  from 
Vienna. 


He  has  never 
faltered  in 
his  faith. 


brought  in 
in  Austria. 


duct  very  much  resembled  that  of  the  excellent 
Philip  II.  when  he  heard  the  fall  of  Antwerp,  — 
for  I  went  to  her  door,  screeching  through  the  key 
hole  'Vicksburg  is  ours  !'  just  as  that  other  pere  de 
famille,  more  potent,  but  I  trust  not  more  respect 
able  than  I,  conveyed  the  news  to  his  Infanta. 
( Vide,  for  the  incident,  an  American  work  on  the 
Netherlands,  I.  p.  263,  and  the  authorities  there 
cited.)  It  is  contemptible  on  my  part  to  speak 
thus  frivolously  of  events  which  will  stand  out  in 
such  golden  letters  so  long  as  America  has  a  his 
tory,  but  I  wanted  to  illustrate  the  yearning  for  sym 
pathy  which  I  felt.  You  who  were  among  people 
grim  and  self-contained  usually,  who,  I  trust,  were 
falling  on  each  other's  necks  in  the  public  streets, 
shouting,  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  and  triumph  in 
their  hearts,  can  picture  my  isolation. 

"  I  have  never  faltered  in  my  faith,  and  in  the 
darkest  hours,  when  misfortunes  seemed  thronging 
most  thickly  upon  us,  I  have  never  felt  the  want 
of  anything  to  lean  against ;  but  I  own  I  did  feel 
like  shaking  hands  with  a  few  hundred  people 
when  I  heard  of  our  Fourth  of  July,  1863,  work, 
and  should  like  to  have  heard  and  joined  in  an 
American  cheer  or  two 

" ....  I  have  not  much  to  say  of  matters  here  to 
interest  you.  We  have  had  an  intensely  hot,  his 
torically  hot,  and  very  long  and  very  dry  summer. 


A  Memoir. 


125 


I  never  knew  before  what  a  drought  meant.  In 
Hungary  the  suffering  is  great,  and  the  people  are 
killing  the  sheep  to  feed  the  pigs  with  the  mutton. 
Here  about  Vienna  the  trees  have  been  almost 
stripped  of  foliage  ever  since  the  end  of  August. 
There  is  no  glory  in  the  grass  nor  verdure  in  any 
thing. 

"  In  fact,  we  have  nothing  green  here  but  the 
Archduke  Max,  who  firmly  believes  that  he  is 
going  forth  to  Mexico  to  establish  an  American 
empire,  and  that  it  is  his  divine  mission  to  destroy 
the  dragon  of  democracy  and  re-establish  the  true 
Church,  the  Eight  Divine,  and  all  sorts  of  games. 
Poor  young  man !  .  .  .  . 

"Our  information  from  home  is  to  the  12th. 
Charleston  seems  to  be  in  articulo  mortis,  but  how 
forts  nowadays  seem  to  fly  in  the  face  of  Scrip 
ture.  Those  founded  on  a  rock  and  built  of  it  fall 
easily  enough  under  the  rain  of  Parrotts  and  Dahl- 
grens,  while  the  house  built  of  sand  seems  to  bid 
defiance  to  the  storm." 

In  quoting  from  these  confidential  letters  I  have 
been  restrained  from  doing  full  justice  to  their 
writer  by  the  fact  that  he  spoke  with  such  entire 
freedom  of  persons  as  well  as  events.  But  if  they 
could  be  read  from  beginning  to  end,  no  one  could 
help  feeling  that  his  love  for  his  own  country,  and 


SECT.  XVII. 
1862. 


Letter  from 
Vienna. 


Great 
drought. 


Nothing 
green  but 
poor  Maxi 
milian. 


The  house 
on  a  rock 
and  the 
house  of 
sand. 


126 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SKCT.  XVII. 
1862. 


His  patriot 
ism  not  a  de 
fence  against 
malevolence. 


passionate  absorption  of  every  thought  in  the  strife 
upon  which  its  existence  as  a  nation  depended,  were 
his  very  life  during  all  this  agonizing  period.  He 
can  think  and  talk  of  nothing  else,  or,  if  he  turns 
for  a  moment  to  other  subjects,  he  reverts  to  the 
one  great  central  interest  of  "American  politics," 
of  which  he  says  in  one  of  the  letters  from  which  I 
have  quoted,  "  There  is  nothing  else  worth  thinking 
of  in  the  world." 

But  in  spite  of  his  public  record  as  the  his 
torian  of  the  struggle  for  liberty  and  the  champion 
of  its  defenders,  and  while  every  letter  he  wrote 
betrayed  in  every  word  the  intensity  of  his  patri 
otic  feeling,  he  was  not  safe  against  the  attacks  of 
malevolence.  A  train  laid  by  unseen  hands  was 
waiting  for  the  spark  to  kindle  it,  and  this  came 
at  last  in  the  shape  of  a  letter  from  an  unknown 
individual,  —  a  letter  the  existence  of  which  ought 
never  to  have  been  a  matter  of  official  recognition. 


A  Memoir. 


127 


XVIII. 

Resignation  of  his    Office.  —  Causes  of  his  Resig 
nation.     (1866  - 1867. ) 

IT  is  a  relief  to  me  that  just  here,  where  I  come 
to  the  first  of  two  painful  episodes  in  this  brilliant 
and  fortunate  career,  I  can  preface  my  statement 
with  the  generous  words  of  one  who  speaks  with 
authority  of  his  predecessor  in  office. 

The  Hon.  John  Jay,  Ex-Minister  to  Austria,  in 
the  Tribute  to  the  memory  of  Motley  read  at  a 
meeting  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  wrote 
as  follows  :  — 

"  In  singular  contrast  to  Mr.  Motley's  brilliant 
career  as  an  historian  stands  the  fact  recorded  in 
our  diplomatic  annals  that  he  was  twice  forced 
from  the  service  as  one  who  had  forfeited  the  con 
fidence  of  the  American  Government.  This  So 
ciety,  while  he  was  living,  recognized  his  fame  as  a 
statesman,  diplomatist,  and  patriot,  as  belonging  to 
America,  and  now  that  death  has  closed  the  career 
of  Seward,  Sumner,  and  Motley,  it  will  be  remem 
bered  that  the  great  historian,  twice  humiliated,  by 
orders  from  Washington,  before  the  diplomacy  and 


128 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


culture  of  Europe,  appealed  from  the  passions  of 
the  hour  to  the  verdict  of  history. 

"  Having  succeeded  Mr.  Motley  at  Vienna  some 
two  years  after  his  departure,  I  had  occasion  to 
read  most  of  his  despatches,  which  exhibited  a 
mastery  of  the  subjects  of  which  they  treated,  with 
much  of  the  clear  perception,  the  scholarly  and 
philosophic  tone  and  decided  judgment,  which, 
supplemented  by  his  picturesque  description,  full 
of  life  and  color,  have  given  character  to  his  histo 
ries.  They  are  features  which  might  well  have 
served  to  extend  the  remark  of  Madame  de  Stael 
that  a  great  historian  is  almost  a  statesman.  I  can 
speak  also  from  my  own  observation  of  the  repu 
tation  which  Motley  left  in  the  Austrian  capital. 
Notwithstanding  the  decision  with  which,  under 
the  direction  of  Mr.  Seward,  he  had  addressed  the 
minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Count  Mensdorff,  after 
wards  the  Prince  Diedrickstein,  protesting  against 
the  departure  of  an  Austrian  force  of  one  thousand 
volunteers,  who  were  about  to  embark  for  Mexico 
in  aid  of  the  ill-fated  Maximilian,  —  a  protest 
which  at  the  last  moment  arrested  the  project,  — 
Mr.  Motley  and  his  amiable  family  were  always 
spoken  of  in  terms  of  cordial  regard  and  respect  by 
members  of  the  imperial  family  and  those  eminent 
statesmen,  Count  de  Beust  and  Count  Andrassy. 
His  death,  I  am  sure,  is  mourned  to-day  by  the 


A  Memoir. 


representatives  of  the  historic  names  of  Austria 
and  Hungary,  and  by  the  surviving  diplomats  then 
residing  near  the  Court  of  Vienna,  wherever  they 
may  still  be  found,  headed  by  their  venerable 
Doyen,  the  Baron  de  Heckeren." 

The  story  of  Mr.  Motley's  resignation  of  his 
office  and  its  acceptance  by  the  Government  is 
this. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  Andrew 
Johnson,  received  a  letter  professing  to  be  written 
from  the  Hotel  Meurice,  Paris,  dated  October  23, 
1866,  and  signed  "  George  W.  M'Crackin,  of  New 
York."  This  letter  was  filled  with  accusations  di 
rected  against  various  public  agents,  ministers,  and 
consuls,  representing  the  United  States  in  different 
countries.  Its  language  was  coarse,  its  assertions 
were  improbable,  its  spirit  that  of  the  lowest  of 
party  scribblers.  It  was  bitter  against  New  England, 
especially  so  against  Massachusetts,  and  it  singled 
out  Motley  for  the  most  particular  abuse.  I  think 
it  is  still  questioned  whether  there  was  any  such 
person  as  the  one  named,  —  at  any  rate,  it  bore  the 
characteristic  marks  of  those  vulgar  anonymous 
communications  which  rarely  receive  any  atten 
tion  unless  they  are  important  enough  to  have  the 
police  set  on  the  track  of  the  writer  to  find  his  rat- 
hole,  if  possible.  A  paragraph  in  the  Daily  Adver- 


130 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XVIIL 
1866. 


tiser  of  June  7,  1869  quotes  from  a  "Western  paper 
a  story  to  the  effect  that  one  William  R.  M'Cracken, 
who  had  recently  died  at ,  confessed  to  hav 
ing  written  the  M'Crackin  letter.  Motley,  he  said, 
had  snubbed  him  and  refused  to  lend  him  money. 
"He  appears  to  have  been  a  Bohemian  of  the 
lowest  order."  Between  such  authorship  and  the 
anonymous  there  does  not  seem  to  be  much  to 
choose.  But  the  dying  confession  sounds  in  my 
ears  as  decidedly  apocryphal  As  for  the  letter,  I 
had  rather  characterize  it  than  reproduce  it.  It  is 
an  offence  to  decency  and  a  disgrace  to  the  national 
record  on  which  it  is  found. 

This  letter  of  "George  W.  M'Crackin"  passed 
into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Seward,  the  Secretary  of 
State.  Most  gentlemen,  I  think,  would  have  de 
stroyed  it  on  the  spot,  as  it  was  not  fit  for  the 
waste-basket.  Some,  more  cautious,  might  have 
smothered  it  among  the  piles  of  their  private  com 
munications.  If  any  notice  was  taken  of  it,  one 
would  say  that  a  private  note  to  each  of  the  gentle 
men  attacked  might  have  warned  him  that  there 
were  malicious  eavesdroppers  about,  ready  to  catch 
up  any  careless  expression  he  might  let  fall  and 
make  a  scandalous  report  of  it  to  his  detriment. 

The  Secretary,  acquiescing  without  resistance  in 
a  suggestion  of  the  President,  saw  fit  to  address  a 
formal  note  to  several  of  the  gentlemen  mentioned 


A  Memoir. 


131 


in  the  M'Crackin  letter,  repeating  some  of  its  offen 
sive  expressions,  and  requesting  those  officials  to 
deny  or  confirm  the  report  that  they  had  uttered 
them. 

A  gentleman  who  is  asked  whether  he  has  spoken 
in  a  "  malignant "  or  "  offensive  "  manner,  whether 
he  has  "  railed  violently  and  shamefully "  against 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  or  against  any 
body  else,  might  well  wonder  who  would  address 
such  a  question  to  the  humblest  citizen  not  sup 
posed  to  be  wanting  in  a  common  measure  of  self- 
respect.  A  gentleman  holding  an  important  official 
station  in  a  foreign  country,  receiving  a  letter  con 
taining  such  questions,  signed  by  the  Prime  Minis 
ter  of  his  government,  if  he  did  not  think  himself 
imposed  upon  by  a  forgery,  might  well  consider 
himself  outraged.  It  was  a  letter  of  this  kind  which 
was  sent  by  the  Secretary  of  State  to  the  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  to  the  Empire  of  Austria.  Not 
quite  all  the  vulgar  insolence  of  the  M'Crackin 
letter  was  repeated.  Mr.  Seward  did  not  ask  Mr. 
Motley  to  deny  or  confirm  the  assertion  of  the  letter 
that  he  was  a  "  thorough  flunky  "  and  "  un-American 
functionary."  But  he  did  insult  him  with  various 
questions  suggested  by  the  anonymous  letter, — 
questions  that  must  have  been  felt  as  an  indignity 
by  the  most  thick-skinned  of  battered  politicians. 

Mr.  Motley  was  very  sensitive,  very  high-spirited, 


132 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


very  impulsive,  very  patriotic,  and  singularly  truth 
ful  The  letter  of  Mr.  Seward  to  such  a  man  was 
like  a  buffet  on  the  cheek  of  an  unarmed  officer.  It 
stung  like  the  thrust  of  a  stiletto.  It  roused  a  re 
sentment  that  could  not  find  any  words  to  give  it 
expression.  He  could  not  wait  to  turn  the  insult 
over  in  his  mind,  to  weigh  the  exact  amount  of 
affront  in  each  question,  to  take  counsel,  to  sleep 
over  it,  and  reply  to  it  with  diplomatic  measure 
and  suavity.  One  hour  had  scarcely  elapsed  before 
his  answer  was  written.  As  to  his  feelings  as  an 
American,  he  appeals  to  his  record.  This  might 
have  shown  that  if  he  erred  it  was  on  the  side  of 
enthusiasm  and  extravagant  expressions  of  rever 
ence  for  the  American  people  during  the  heroic 
years  just  passed.  He  denounces  the  accusations 
as  pitiful  fabrications  and  vile  calumny.  He 
blushes  that  such  charges  could  have  been  uttered ; 
he  is  deeply  wounded  that  Mr.  Seward  could  have 
listened  to  such  falsehood.  He  does  not  hesitate 
to  say  what  his  opinions  are  with  reference  to  home 
questions,  and  especially  to  that  of  reconstruction. 

"  These  opinions,"  he  says, "  in  the  privacy  of  my 
own  household,  and  to  occasional  American  visitors, 
I  have  not  concealed.  The  great  question  now 
presenting  itself  for  solution  demands  the  conscien 
tious  scrutiny  of  every  American  who  loves  his 
country  and  believes  in  the  human  progress  of 


A  Memoir. 


133 


which  that  country  is  one  of  the  foremost  repre 
sentatives.  I  have  never  thought,  during  my  resi 
dence  at  Vienna,  that  because  I  have  the  honor  of 
being  a  public  servant  of  the  American  people  I 
am  deprived  of  the  right  of  discussing  within  my 
own  walls  the  gravest  subjects  that  can  interest 
freemen.  A  minister  of  the  United  States  does  not 
cease  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  as  deeply 
interested  as  others  in  all  that  relates  to  the  wel 
fare  of  his  country." 

Among  the  "  occasional  American  visitors  "  spoken 
of  above  must  have  been  some  of  those  self-ap 
pointed  or  hired  agents  called  "  interviewers,"  who 
do  for  the  American  public  what  the  Venetian  spies 
did  for  the  Council  of  Ten,  what  the  familiars  of  the 
Inquisition  did  for  the  priesthood,  who  invade  every 
public  man's  privacy,  who  listen  at  every  key-hole, 
who  tamper  with  every  guardian  of  secrets ;  purvey 
ors  to  the  insatiable  appetite  of  a  public  which 
must  have  a  slain  reputation  to  devour  with  its 
breakfast,  as  the  monster  of  antiquity  called  regu 
larly  for  his  tribute  of  a  spotless  virgin. 

The  "  interviewer  "  has  his  use,  undoubtedly,  and 
often  instructs  and  amuses  his  public  with  gossip 
they  could  not  otherwise  listen  to.  He  serves  the 
politician  by  repeating  the  artless  and  unstudied 
remarks  which  fall  from  his  lips  in  a  conversation 
which  the  reporter  has  been  invited  to  take  notes  of. 


SKCT.  XVTIL 

1*66. 


134 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


He  tickles  the  author's  vanity  by  showing  him  off 
as  he  sits  in  his  library  unconsciously  uttering 
the  engaging  items  of  self-portraiture  which,  as  he 
well  knows,  are  to  be  given  to  the  public  in  next 
week's  illustrated  paper.  The  feathered  end  of  his 
shaft  titillates  harmlessly  enough,  but  too  often 
the  arrowhead  is  crusted  with  a  poison  worse  than 
the  Indian  gets  by  mingling  the  wolf's  gall  with  the 
rattlesnake's  venom.  No  man  is  safe  whose  un 
guarded  threshold  the  mischief-making  questioner 
has  crossed.  The  more  unsuspecting,  the  more 
frank,  the  more  courageous,  the  more  social  is  the 
subject  of  his  vivisection,  the  more  easily  does 
he  get  at  his  vital  secrets,  if  he  has  any  to  be 
extracted.  No  man  is  safe  if  the  hearsay  reports 
of  his  conversation  are  to  be  given  to  the  public 
without  his  own  careful  revision.  When  we  re 
member  that  a  proof-text  bearing  on  the  mighty 
question  of  the  future  life,  words  of  supreme  sig 
nificance,  uttered  as  they  were  in  the  last  hour,  and 
by  the  lips  to  which  we  listen  as  to  none  other,  — 
that  this  text  depends  for  its  interpretation  on  the 
position  of  a  single  comma,  we  can  readily  see  what 
wrong  may  be  done  by  the  unintentional  blunder  of 
the  most  conscientious  reporter.  But  too  frequently 
it  happens  that  the  careless  talk  of  an  honest  and 
high-minded  man  only  reaches  the  public  after  fil 
tering  through  the  drain  of  some  reckless  hire- 


A  Memoir. 


135 


ling's  memory,  —  one  who  has  played  so  long  with 
other  men's  characters  and  good  name  that  he  for 
gets  they  have  any  value  except  to  fill  out  his 
morning  paragraphs. 

Whether  the  author  of  the  scandalous  letter 
which  it  was  disgraceful  to  the  Government  to 
recognize  was  a  professional  interviewer  or  only  a 
malicious  amateur,  or  whether  he  was  a  paid  "  spot 
ter,"  sent  by  some  jealous  official  to  report  on  the 
foreign  ministers  as  is  sometimes  done  in  the  case  of 
conductors  of  city  horse-cars,  or  whether  the  dying 
miscreant  before  mentioned  told  the  truth,  cannot 
be  certainly  known.  But  those  who  remember  Mr. 
Hawthorne's  account  of  his  consular  experiences  at 
Liverpool  are  fully  aware  to  what  intrusions  and 
impertinences  and  impositions  our  national  repre 
sentatives  in  other  countries  are  subjected.  Those 
fellow-citizens  who  "  often  came  to  the  consulate  in 
parties  of  half  a  dozen  or  more,  on  no  business 
whatever,  but  merely  to  subject  their  public  servant 
to  a  rigid  examination,  and  see  how  he  was  getting 
on  with  his  duties,"  may  very  possibly  have  in 
cluded  among  them  some  such  mischief-maker  as 
the  author  of  the  odious  letter  which  received 
official  recognition.  Mr.  Motley  had  spoken  in 
one  of  his  histories  of  "  a  set  of  venomous  famil 
iars  who  glided  through  every  chamber  and  coiled 
themselves  at  every  fireside."  He  little  thought 


SECT.  XVIII. 
1866. 


What  public 
servants  are 
exposed  to. 


Mr.  Haw 
thorne's  ex 
perience. 


136 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XVIII 
1866. 


Thequestions 
addressed  to 
Mr.  Motley 
an  insult. 


that  under  his  own  roof  he  himself  was  to  be  the 
victim  of  an  equally  base  espionage. 

It  was  an  insult  on  the  part  of  the  Government  to 
have  sent  Mr.  Motley  such  a  letter  with  such  ques 
tions  as  were  annexed  to  it.  No  very  exact  rule 
can  be  laid  down  as  to  the  manner  in  which  an 
insult  shall  be  dealt  with.  Something  depends  on 
temperament,  and  his  was  of  the  warmer  com 
plexion.  His  first  impulse,  he  says,  was  to  content 
himself  with  a  flat  denial  of  the  truth  of  the  accu 
sations.  But  his  scrupulous  honesty  compelled  him 
to  make  a  plain  statement  of  his  opinions,  and  to 
avow  the  fact  that  he  had  made  no  secret  of  them  in 
conversation  under  conditions  where  he  had  a  right 
to  speak  freely  of  matters  quite  apart  from  his  official 
duties.  His  answer  to  the  accusation  was  denial  of 
its  charges ;  his  reply  to  the  insult  was  his  resignation. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  this  was  the  wisest 
course,  but  wisdom  is  often  disconcerted  by  an  in 
dignity,  and  even  a  meek  Christian  may  forget  to 
turn  the  other  cheek  after  receiving  the  first  blow 
until  the  natural  man  has  asserted  himself  by  a 
retort  in  kind.  But  the  wrong  was  committed ;  his 
resignation  was  accepted ;  the  vulgar  letter,  not  fit 
to  be  spread  out  on  these  pages,  is  enrolled  in  the 
records  of  the  nation,  and  the  first  deep  wound  was 
inflicted  on  the  proud  spirit  of  one  whose  renown 
had  shed  lustre  on  the  whole  country. 


A  Memoir. 


137 


That  the  burden  of  this  wrong  may  rest  where  it 
belongs,  I  quote  the  following  statement  from  Mr. 
Jay's  paper,  already  referred  to. 

"  It  is  due  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Seward  to  say, 
and  there  would  seem  now  no  further  motive  for 
concealing  the  truth,  that  I  was  told  in  Europe,  on 
what  I  regarded  as  reliable  authority,  that  there 
was  reason  to  believe  that  on  the  receipt  of  Mr. 
Motley's  resignation  Mr.  Seward  had  written  to 
him  declining  to  accept  it,  and  that  this  letter,  by  a 
telegraphic  order  of  President  Johnson,  had  been 
arrested  in  the  hands  of  a  despatch  agent  before 
its  delivery  to  Mr.  Motley,  and  that  the  curt  letter 
of  the  18th  of  April  had  been  substituted  in  its 
stead." 

The  Hon.  John  Bigelow,  late  Minister  to  France, 
has  published  an  article  in  the  International 
Eeview  for  July -August,  1878,  in  which  he  de 
fends  his  late  friend  Mr.  Seward's  action  in  this 
matter  at  the  expense  of  the  President,  Mr.  Andrew 
Johnson,  and  not  without  inferences  unfavorable  to 
the  discretion  of  Mr.  Motley.  Many  readers  will 
think  that  the  simple  record  of  Mr.  Seward's  unre 
sisting  acquiescence  in  the  action  of  the  President 
is  far  from  being  to  his  advantage.  I  quote  from 
his  own  conversation  as  carefully  reported  by  his 
friend  Mr.  Bigelow.  "  Mr.  Johnson  was  in  a  state 
of  intense  irritation,  and  more  or  less  suspicious  of 


SECT.  XVIII. 
1866. 


Mr.  Seward 
cleared  by  a 
"  reliable 
authority." 


Mr.  Seward 
not  cleared, 
but  defended 
by  Hon. 
John  Bige 
low. 


138 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XVIII 
1867- 


Mr.  Johnson 
intensely 
irritated  and 
suspicious  of 
everybody. 


Mr.  Seward 
compliant. 


everybody  about  him."  "  Instead  of  throwing  the 
letter  into  the  fire,"  the  President  handed  it  to 
him,  the  Secretary,  and  suggested  answering  it, 
and  without  a  word,  so  far  as  appears,  he  simply 
answered,  "Certainly,  sir."  Again,  the  Secretary 
having  already  written  to  Mr.  Motley  that  "his 
answer  was  satisfactory,"  the  President,  on  reach 
ing  the  last  paragraph  of  Mr.  Motley's  letter,  in 
which  he  begged  respectfully  to  resign  his  post, 
"without  waiting  to  learn  what  Mr.  Seward  had 
done  or  proposed  to  do,  exclaimed,  with  a  not 
unnatural  asperity,  '  Well,  let  him  go,'  and  '  on 
hearing  this,'  said  Mr.  Seward,  laughing,  '  I  did  not 
read  my  despatch.'  "  Many  persons  will  think  that 
the  counsel  for  the  defence  has  stated  the  plaintiffs 
case  so  strongly  that  there  is  nothing  left  for  him 
but  to  show  his  ingenuity  and  his  friendship  for  the 
late  Secretary  in  a  hopeless  argument.  At  any  rate, 
Mr.  Seward  appears  not  to  have  made  the  slightest 
effort  to  protect  Mr.  Motley  against  his  coarse  and 
jealous  chief  at  two  critical  moments,  and  though 
his  own  continuance  in  office  may  have  been  more 
important  to  the  State  than  that  of  the  Vicar  of  Bray 
was  to  the  Church,  he  ought  to  have  risked  some 
thing,  as  it  seems  to  me,  to  shield  such  a  patriot, 
such  a  gentleman,  such  a  scholar,  from  ignoble  treat 
ment  ;  he  ought  to  have  been  as  ready  to  guard  Mr. 
Motley  from  wrong  as  .Mr.  Bigelow  has  shown  him- 


A  Memoir. 


139 


self  to  shield  Mr.  Seward  from  reproach,  and  his 
task,  if  more  delicate,  was  not  more  difficult.  I  am 
willing  to  accept  Mr.  Bigelow's  loyal  and  honorable 
defence  of  his  friend's  memory  as  the  best  that  could 
be  said  for  Mr.  Seward,  but  the  best  defence  in  this 
case  is  little  better  than  an  impeachment.  As  for 
Mr.  Johnson,  he  had  held  the  weapon  of  the  most 
relentless  of  the  Parcae  so  long  that  his  suddenly 
clipping  the  thread  of  a  foreign  minister's  tenure 
of  office  in  a  fit  of  jealous  anger  is  not  at  all  sur 
prising. 

Thus  finished  Mr.  Motley's  long  and  successful  dip 
lomatic  service  at  the  Court  of  Austria.  He  may  have 
been  judged  hasty  in  resigning  his  place ;  he  may 
have  committed  himself  in  expressing  his  opinions 
too  strongly  before  strangers,  whose  true  character 
as  spies  and  eavesdroppers  he  was  too  high-minded 
to  suspect.  But  no  caution  could  have  protected 
him  against  a  slanderer  who  hated  the  place  he 
came  from,  the  company  he  kept,  the  name  he  had 
made  famous,  to  whom  his  very  look  and  bearing 
—  such  as  belong  to  a  gentleman  of  natural  refine 
ment  and  good  breeding  —  must  have  been  a  per 
sonal  grievance  and  an  unpardonable  offence. 

I  will  add,  in  illustration  of  what  has  been  said, 
and  as  showing  his  feeling  with  reference  to  the 
matter,  an  extract  from  a  letter  to  me  from  Vienna, 
dated  the  12th  of  March,  1867. 


140 


John  Lotkrop  Motley. 


"  ....  As  so  many  friends  and  so  many  strangers 
have  said  so  much  that  is  gratifying  to  me  in  pub 
lic  and  private  on  this  very  painful  subject,  it  would 
be  like  affectation,  in  writing  to  so  old  a  friend  as 
you,  not  to  touch  upon  it.  I  shall  confine  myself, 
however,  to  one  fact,  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  may 
be  new  to  you. 

"  Geo.  W.  M'Cracken  is  a  man  and  a  name  ut 
terly  unknown  to  me. 

"With  the  necessary  qualification  which  every 
man  who  values  truth  must  make  when  asserting 
such  a  negation,  —  viz.,  to  the  very  best  of  my 
memory  and  belief,  —  I  never  set  eyes  on  him  nor 
heard  of  him  until  now,  in  the  whole  course  of  my 
life.  Not  a  member  of  my  family  or  of  the  legation 
has  the  faintest  recollection  of  any  such  person.  I 
am  quite  convinced  that  he  never  saw  me  nor  heard 
the  sound  of  my  voice.  That  his  letter  was  a  tissue 
of  vile  calumnies,  shameless  fabrications,  and  un 
blushing  and  contemptible  falsehoods,  —  by  whom 
soever  uttered,  —  I  have  stated  in  a  reply  to  what 
ought  never  to  have  been  an  official  letter.  No 
man  can  regret  more  than  I  do  that  such  a  corre 
spondence  is  enrolled  in  the  capital  among  American 
State  Papers.  I  shall  not  trust  myself  to  speak 
of  the  matter.  It  has  been  a  sufficiently  public 
scandal" 


A  Memoir. 


141 


XIX. 

Last  Two  Volumes  of  the  "History  of  the  United 
Netherlands" — General  Criticisms  of  Dutch  Schol 
ars  on  Motley's  Historical  Works.  (1867-1868.) 

IN  his  letter  to  me  of  March  12, 1867,  just  cited, 
Mr.  Motley  writes :  — 

"My  two  concluding  volumes  of  the  United 
Netherlands  are  passing  rapidly  through  the  press. 
Indeed,  Volume  III.  is  entirely  printed  and  a  third 
of  Volume  IV. 

"  If  I  live  ten  years  longer  I  shall  have  probably 
written  the  natural  sequel  to  the  first  two  works,  — 
viz.,  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  After  that  I  shall 
cease  to  scourge  the  public. 

"  I  don't  know  whether  my  last  two  volumes  are 
good  or  bad  —  I  only  know  that  they  are  true  — 
but  that  need  n't  make  them  amusing. 

"  Alas  —  one  never  knows  when  one  becomes  a 
bore." 

In  1868  the  two  concluding  volumes  of  the 
History  of  the  Netherlands  were  published  at  the 
same  time  in  London  and  in  New  York.  The  events 


142 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


described  and  the  characters  delineated  in  these 
two  volumes  had,  perhaps,  less  peculiar  interest  for 
English  and  American  readers  than  some  of  those 
which  had  lent  attraction  to  the  preceding  ones. 
There  was  no  scene  like  the  siege  of  Antwerp,  no 
story  like  that  of  the  Spanish  Armada.  There  were 
no  names  that  sounded  to  our  ears  like  those  of 
Sir  Philip  Sidney  and  Leicester  and  Amy  Eobsart. 
But  the  main  course  of  his  narrative  flowed  on  with 
the  same  breadth  and  depth  of  learning  and  the 
same  brilliancy  of  expression.  The  monumental 
work  continued  as  nobly  as  it  had  begun.  The 
facts  had  been  slowly,  quietly  gathered  one  by  one, 
like  pebbles  from  the  empty  channel  of  a  brook. 
The  style  was  fluent,  impetuous,  abundant,  impa 
tient,  as  it  were,  at  times,  and  leaping  the  sober 
boundaries  prescribed  to  it,  like  the  torrent  which 
rushes  through  the  same  channel  when  the  rains  have 
filled  it.  Thus  there  was  matter  for  criticism  in  his 
use  of  language.  He  was  not  always  careful  in 
the  construction  of  his  sentences.  He  introduced 
expressions  now  and  then  into  his  vocabulary 
which  reminded  one  of  his  earlier  literary  efforts. 
He  used  stronger  language  at  times  than  was  ne 
cessary,  coloring  too  highly,  shading  too  deeply  in 
his  pictorial  delineations.  To  come  to  the  matter  of 
his  narrative,  it  must  be  granted  that  not  every  reader 
will  care  to  follow  him  through  all  the  details  of  dip- 


A  Memoir. 

lomatic  intrigues  which  he  has  with  such  industry 
and  sagacity  extricated  from  the  old  manuscripts 
in  which  they  had  long  lain  hidden.  But  we  turn  a 
few  pages  and  we  come  to  one  of  those  descriptions 
which  arrest  us  at  once  and  show  him  in  his  power 
and  brilliancy  as  a  literary  artist.  His  characters 
move  before  us  with  the  features  of  life ;  we  can 
see  Elizabeth,  or  Philip,  or  Maurice,  not  as  a  name 
connected  with  events,  but  as  a  breathing  and  act 
ing  human  being,  to  be  loved  or  hated,  admired  or 
despised  as  if  he  or  she  were  our  contemporary. 
That  all  his  judgments  would  not  be  accepted  as 
final  we  might  easily  anticipate ;  he  could  not  help 
writing  more  or  less  as  a  partisan,  but  he  was  a 
partisan  on  the  side  of  freedom  in  politics  and  re 
ligion,  of  human  nature  as  against  every  form  of 
tyranny,  secular  or  priestly,  of  noble  manhood 
wherever  he  saw  it  as  against  meanness  and  vio 
lence  and  imposture,  whether  clad  in  the  soldier's 
mail  or  the  emperor's  purple.  His  sternest  critics, 
and  even  these  admiring  ones,  were  yet  to  be  found 
among  those  who  with  fundamental  beliefs  at  vari 
ance  with  his  own  followed  him  in  his  long  re 
searches  among  the  dusty  annals  of  the  past. 

The  work  of  the  learned  M.  Groen  van  Prinsterer 
("  Maurice  et  Barnevelt,  iStude  Historique.  Utrecht, 
1875  "),  devoted  expressly  to  the  revision  and  cor 
rection  of  what  the  author  considers  the  erroneous 


143 


144 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


views  of  Mr.  Motley  on  certain  important  points, 
bears,  notwithstanding,  such  sincere  and  hearty  trib 
ute  to  his  industry,  his  acquisitions,  his  brilliant 
qualities  as  a  historian,  that  some  extracts  from 
it  will  be  read,  I  think,  with  interest. 

"  My  first  interview,  more  than  twenty  years  ago, 
with  Mr.  Lothrop  Motley,  has  left  an  indelible  im 
pression  on  my  memory. 

"It  was  the  8th  of  August,  1853.  A  note  is 
handed  me  from  our  eminent  Archivist  Bakhuizen 
van  den  Brink.  It  informs  me  that  I  am  to  receive 
a  visit  from  an  American,  who,  having  been  struck 
by  the  analogies  between  the  United  Provinces  and 
the  United  States,  between  Washington  and  the 
founder  of  our  independence,  has  interrupted  his 
diplomatic  career  to  write  the  life  of  William  the 
First ;  that  he  has  already  given  proof  of  ardor  and 
perseverance,  having  worked  in  libraries  and  among 
collections  of  manuscripts,  and  that  he  is  coming 
to  pursue  his  studies  at  the  Hague. 

"  While  I  am  surprised  and  delighted  with  this 
intelligence,  I  am  informed  that  Mr.  Motley  him 
self  is  waiting  for  my  answer.  My  eagerness  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  such  an  associate  in  my 
sympathies  and  my  labors  may  be  well  imagined. 
But  how  shall  I  picture  my  surprise,  in  presently 
discovering  that  this  unknown  and  indefatigable 


A  Memoir. 


145 


fellow-worker  has  really  read,  I  say  read  and  re 
read  our  Quartos,  our  Folios,  the  enormous  volumes 
of  Bor,  of  van  Meteren,  besides  a  multitude  of  books, 
of  pamphlets,  and  even  of  unedited  documents. 
Already  he  is  familiar  with  the  events,  the  changes 
of  condition,  the  characteristic  details  of  the  life  of 
his  and  my  hero.  Not  only  is  he  acquainted  with 
my  Archives,  but  it  seems  as  if  there  was  nothing 
in  this  voluminous  collection  of  which  he  was  igno 
rant 

"  In  sending  me  the  last  volume  of  his  History 
of  the  Foundation  of  the  Eepublic  of  the  Nether 
lands,  Mr.  Motley  wrote  to  me :  '  Without  the  help 
of  the  Archives  I  could  never  have  undertaken  the 
difficult  task  I  had  set  myself,  and  you  will  have 
seen  at  least  from  my  numerous  citations  that  I 
have  made  a  sincere  and  conscientious  study  of 
them.'  Certainly  in  reading  such  a  testimonial  I 
congratulated  myself  on  the  excellent  fruit  of  my 
labors,  but  the  gratitude  expressed  to  me  by  Mr. 
Motley  was  sincerely  reciprocated.  The  Archives 
are  a  scientific  collection,  and  my  Manual  of  Na 
tional  History,  written  in  Dutch,  hardly  gets  be 
yond  the  limits  of  my  own  country.  And  here  is 
a  stranger,  become  our  compatriot  in  virtue  of  the 
warmth  of  his  sympathies,  who  has  accomplished 
what  was  not  in  my  power.  By  the  detail  and  the 
charm  of  his  narrative,  by  the  matter  and  form  of 


SECT.  XIX. 
1868. 


M.  Groen 
van  Prins- 
terer. 


146 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


a  work  which  the  universality  of  the  English  lan 
guage  and  numerous  translations  were  to  render 
cosmopolitan,  Mr.  Motley,  like  that  other  illustri 
ous  historian,  Prescott,  lost  to  science  by  too  early 
death,  has  popularized  in  both  hemispheres  the 
sublime  devotion  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  the  ex 
ceptional  and  providential  destinies  of  my  country, 
and  the  benedictions  of  the  Eternal  for  all  those 
who  trust  in  Him  and  tremble  only  at  his  Word." 

The  old  Dutch  scholar  differs  in  many  impor 
tant  points  from  Mr.  Motley,  as  might  be  expected 
from  his  creed  and  his  life-long  pursuits.  This  I 
shall  refer  to  in  connection  with  Motley's  last 
work,  "  John  of  Barneveld."  An  historian  among 
archivists  and  annalists  reminds  one  of  Sir  John 
Lubbock  in  the  midst  of  his  ant-hills.  Undoubtedly 
he  disturbs  the  ants  in  their  praiseworthy  indus 
try,  much  as  his  attentions  may  flatter  them.  Un 
questionably  the  ants  (if  their  means  of  expressing 
themselves  were  equal  to  their  apparent  intellectual 
ability)  could  teach  him  many  things  that  he  has 
overlooked  and  correct  him  in  many  mistakes.  But 
the  ants  will  labor  ingloriously  without  an  observer 
to  chronicle  their  doings,  and  the  archivists  and 
annalists  will  pile  up  facts  forever  like  so  many 
articulates  or  mollusks  or  radiates,  until  the  verte 
brate  historian  comes  with  his  generalizing  ideas, 


A  Memoir. 


147 


his  beliefs,  his  prejudices,  his  idiosyncrasies  of  all 
kinds,  and  brings  the  facts  into  a  more  or  less  imper 
fect,  but  still  organic  series  of  relations.  The  his 
tory  which  is  not  open  to  adverse  criticism  is  worth 
little,  except  as  material,  for  it  is  written  without 
taking  cognizance  of  those  higher  facts  about  which 
men  must  differ ;  of  which  Guizot  writes  as  fol 
lows,  as  quoted  in  the  work  of  M.  Groen  van  Prin- 
sterer  himself. 

"  It  is  with  fads  that  our  minds  are  exercised,  it 
has  nothing  but  facts  as  its  materials,  and  when  it 
discovers  general  laws  these  laws  are  themselves 

facts  which  it  determines In  the  study 

of  facts  the  intelligence  may  allow  itself  to  be 
crushed ;  it  may  lower,  narrow,  materialize  itself ; 
it  may  come  to  believe  that  there  are  no  facts  ex 
cept  those  which  strike  us  at  the  first  glance,  which 
come  close  to  us,  which  fall,  as  we  say,  under  our 
senses :  a  great  and  gross  error ;  there  are  remote 
facts,  immense,  obscure,  sublime,  very  difficult  to 
reach,  to  observe,  to  describe,  and  which  are  not 
any  less  facts  for  these  reasons,  and  which  man  is 
not  less  obliged  to  study  and  to  know ;  and  if  he 
fails  to  recognize  them  or  forgets  them,  his  thought 
will  be  prodigiously  abased,  and  all  his  ideas  cany 
the  stamp  of  this  deterioration." 

In  that  higher  region  of  facts  which  belongs  to 
the  historian,  whose  task  it  is  to  interpret  as  well 


SECT.  XIX. 
1868. 


M.  Guizot 
on  facts. 


148 


John  LotJtrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XIX. 
1868. 

Testimony  of 
Dutch  critics 
to  Motley's 
sincerity 
and  truth 
fulness. 


as  to  transcribe,  Mr.  Motley  showed,  of  course,  the 
political  and  religious  school  in  which  he  had  been 
brought  up.  Every  man  has  a  right  to  his  "per 
sonal  equation  "  of  prejudice,  and  Mr.  Motley,  whose 
ardent  temperament  gave  life  to  his  writings,  be 
trayed  his  sympathies  in  the  disputes  of  which  he 
told  the  story,  in  a  way  to  insure  sharp  criticism 
from  those  of  a  different  way  of  thinking.  Thus  it 
is  that  in  the  work  of  M.  Groen  van  Prinsterer,  from 
which  I  have  quoted,  he  is  considered  as  having 
been  betrayed  into  error,  while  his  critic  recog 
nizes  "  his  manifest  desire  to  be  scrupulously  im 
partial  and  truth-telling."  And  M.  Fruin,  another 
of  his  Dutch  critics,  says,  "  His  sincerity,  his  per 
spicacity,  the  accuracy  of  Ms  laborious  researches, 
are  incontestable." 

Some  of  the  criticisms  of  Dutch  scholars  will  be 
considered  in  the  pages  which  deal  with  his  last 
work,  "  The  Life  of  John  of  Barneveld." 


A  Memoir. 


149 


XX. 

• 

Visit  to  America.  —  Residence  at  No.  2  Park  Street, 
Boston.  —  Address  on  the  coming  Presidential 
Election.  —  Address  on  the  Historic  Progress  of 
American  Democracy.  —  Appointed  Minister  to 
England.  (1868  - 1869. ) 

IN  June,  1868,  Mr.  Motley  returned  with  his 
family  to  Boston,  and  established  himself  in  the 
house  No.  2  Park  Street.  During  his  residence 
here  he  entered  a  good  deal  into  society,  and  enter 
tained  many  visitors  in  a  most  hospitable  and 
agreeable  way. 

On  the  20th  of  October,  1868,  he  delivered  an 
address  before  the  Parker  Fraternity,  in  the  Music 
Hall,  by  special  invitation.  Its  title  was  "Four 
questions  for  the  people,  at  the  Presidential  Elec 
tion."  This  was  of  course  what  is  commonly  called 
an  electioneering  speech,  but  a  speech  full  of  noble 
sentiments  and  eloquent  expression.  Here  are  two 
of  its  paragraphs  :  — 

"Certainly  there  have  been  bitterly  contested 
elections  in  this  country  before.  Party  spirit  is 
always  rife,  and  in  such  vivid,  excitable,  disputa- 


SECT.  XX. 
1868. 


Return  to 
Boston. 


Address 
before  the 
Parker  Fra 
ternity. 


150 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


tious  communities  as  ours  are,  and  I  trust  always 
will  be,  it  is  the  very  soul  of  freedom.  To  those 
who  reflect  upon  the  means  and  end  of  popular 
government,  nothing  seems  more  stupid  than  in 
grand  generalities  to  deprecate  party  spirit.  Why, 
government  by  parties  and  through  party  machinery 
is  the  only  possible  method  by  which  a  free  gov 
ernment  can  accomplish  the  purpose  of  its  exist 
ence.  The  old  republics  of  the  past  may  be  said 
to  have  fallen,  not  because  of  party  spirit,  but  be 
cause  there  was  no  adequate  machinery  by  which 
party  spirit  could  develop  itself  with  facility  and 
regularity. 

" .  .  .  .  And  if  our  Eepublic  be  true  to  herself,  the 
future  of  the  human  race  is  assured  by  our  ex 
ample.  No  sweep  of  overwhelming  armies,  no  pon 
derous  treatises  on  the  rights  of  man,  no  hymns 
to  liberty,  though  set  to  martial  music  and  resound 
ing  with  the  full  diapason  of  a  million  human 
throats,  can  exert  so  persuasive  an  influence  as 
does  the  spectacle  of  a  great  republic,  occupying  a 
quarter  of  the  civilized  globe,  and  governed  quietly 
and  sagely  by  the  people  itself." 

A  large  portion  of  this  address  is  devoted  to  the 
proposition  that  it  is  just  and  reasonable  to  pay  our 
debts  rather  than  to  repudiate  them,  and  that  the 
nation  is  as  much  bound  to  be  honest  as  is  the 
individual.  "  It  is  an  awful  thing,"  he  says,  "  that 


A  Memoir. 


151 


this  should  be  a  question  at  all,"  but  it  was  one 
of  the  points  on  which  the  election  turned,  for  all 
that. 

In  his  advocacy  of  the  candidate  with  whom 
and  the  government  of  which  he  became  the  head, 
his  relations  became  afterwards  so  full  of  personal 
antagonism,  he  spoke  as  a  man  of  his  ardent  nature 
might  be  expected  to  speak  on  such  an  occasion. 
No  one  doubts  that  his  admiration  of  General 
Grant's  career  was  perfectly  sincere,  and  no  one  at 
the  present  day  can  deny  that  the  great  Captain 
stood  before  the  historian  with  such  a  record  as 
one  familiar  with  the  deeds  of  heroes  and  patriots 
might  well  consider  as  entitling  him  to  the  honors 
too  often  grudged  to  the  living  to  be  wasted  on  the 
dead.  The  speaker  only  gave  voice  to  the  widely 
prevailing  feelings  which  had  led  to  his  receiving 
the  invitation  to  speak.  The  time  was  one  which 
called  for  outspoken  utterance,  and  there  was  not 
a  listener  whose  heart  did  not  warm  as  he  heard 
the  glowing  words  in  which  the  speaker  recorded 
the  noble  achievements  of  the  soldier  who  must  in 
so  many  ways  have  reminded  him  of  his  favorite 
character,  William  the  Silent. 

On  the  16th  of  December  of  this  same  year,  1868, 
Mr.  Motley  delivered  an  address  before  the  New 
York  Historical  Society,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
sixty-fourth  anniversary  of  its  foundation.  The 


SECT.  XX. 
1868. 


Address 
before  the 
Parker  Fra 
ternity. 


Address 
before  the 
New  York 
Historical 
Society. 


152 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


president  of  the  society,  Mr.  Hamilton  Fish,  intro 
duced  the  speaker  as  one  "  whose  name  belongs  to 
no  single  country,  and  to  no  single  age.  As  a 
statesman  and  diplomatist  and  patriot,  he  belongs 
to  America ;  as  a  scholar,  to  the  world  of  letters ; 
as  a  historian,  all  ages  will  claim  him  in  the  future." 
His  subject  was  "  Historic  Progress  and  American 
Democracy."  The  discourse  is,  to  use  his  own  words, 
"a  rapid  sweep  through  the  eons  and  the  centuries," 
illustrating  the  great  truth  of  the  development  of 
the  race  from  its  origin  to  the  time  in  which  we  are 
living.  It  is  a  long  distance  from  the  planetary  fact 
of  the  obliquity  of  the  equator,  which  gave  the  earth 
its  alternation  of  seasons,  and  rendered  the  history, 
if  not  the  existence  of  man  and  of  civilization  a  pos 
sibility,  to  the  surrender  of  General  Lee  under  the 
apple-tree  at  Appomattox  Court-House.  No  one 
but  a  scholar  familiar  with  the  course  of  history 
could  have  marshalled  such  a  procession  of  events 
into  a  connected  and  intelligible  sequence.  It  is 
indeed  a  flight  rather  than  a  march ;  the  reader  is 
borne  along  as  on  the  wings  of  a  soaring  poem,  and 
sees  the  rising  and  decaying  empires  of  history  be 
neath  him  as  a  bird  of  passage  marks  the  succession 
of  cities  and  wilds  and  deserts  as  he  keeps  pace  with 
the  sun  in  his  journey.  Its  eloquence,  its  patriot 
ism,  its  crowded  illustrations,  drawn  from  vast  re 
sources  of  knowledge,  its  epigrammatic  axioms,  its 


A  Memoir. 


153 


occasional  pleasantries,  are  all  characteristic  of  the 
writer. 

Mr.  Gulian  C.  Verplanck,  the  venerable  senior 
member  of  the  society,  proposed  the  vote  of  thanks 
to  Mr.  Motley  with  words  of  warm  commendation. 
Mr.  William  Cullen  Bryant  rose  and  said :  — 
"  I  take  great  pleasure  in  seconding  the  resolution 
which  has  just  been  read.  The  eminent  historian 
of  the  Dutch  Eepublic,  who  has  made  the  story  of 
its  earlier  days  as  interesting  as  that  of  Athens  and 
Sparta,  and  who  has  infused  into  the  narrative  the 
generous  glow  of  his  own  genius,  has  the  highest 
of  titles  to  be  heard  with  respectful  attention  by  the 
citizens  of  a  community  which,  in  its  origin,  was  an 
offshoot  of  that  renowned  republic.  And  cheerfully 
has  that  title  been  recognized,  as  the  vast  audience 
assembled  here  to-night,  in  spite  of  the  storm,  fully 
testifies  ;  and  well  has  our  illustrious  friend  spoken 
of  the  growth  of  civilization  and  of  the  improve 
ment  in  the  condition  of  mankind,  both  in  the  Old 
World  —  the  institutions  of  which  he  has  so  lately 
observed  —  and  in  the  country  which  is  proud  to 
claim  him  as  one  of  her  children." 

Soon  after  the  election  of  General  Grant,  Mr. 
Motley  received  the  appointment  of  Minister  to 
England.  That  the  position  was  one  which  was  in 
many  respects  most  agreeable  to  him  cannot  be 


SECT.  XX. 
1868-1869. 


Vote  of 
thanks. 
Mr.  Ver 
planck. 


Mr.  Bryant. 


Appointed 
Minister  to 
England. 


154 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XX. 
1868-1869. 


His  feelings 
about  his  ap 
pointment. 


doubted.  Yet  it  was  not  with  unmingled  feelings 
of  satisfaction,  not  without  misgivings  which  warned 
him  but  too  truly  of  the  dangers  about  to  encom 
pass  him,  that  he  accepted  the  place.  He  writes  to 
me  on  April  16,  1869  :  — 

" ....  I  feel  anything  but  exultation  at  present, 

—  rather  the  opposite  sensation.     I  feel  that  I  am 
placed  higher  than  I  deserve,  and  at  the  same  time 
that  I  am  taking  greater  responsibilities  than  ever 
were  assumed  by  me  before.    You  will  be  indulgent 
to  my  mistakes  and  shortcomings,  —  and  who  can 
expect  to  avoid  them  ?   But  the  world  will  be  cruel, 
and  the  times  are  threatening.     I  shall  do  my  best 

—  but  the  best  may  be  poor  enough  —  and  keep  fa 
heart  for  every  fate.' " 


A  Memoir. 


155 


XXL 

Recall  from,  the  English  Mission. — Its  Alleged  and 
its  Probable  Reasons.     (1869-1870.) 

THE  misgivings  thus  expressed  to  me  in  confi 
dence,  natural  enough  in  one  who  had  already 
known  what  it  is  to  fall  on  evil  days  and  evil 
tongues,  were  but  too  well  justified  by  after  events. 
I  could  have  wished  to  leave  untold  the  story  of 
the  English  mission,  an  episode  in  Motley's  life  full 
of  heart-burnings,  and  long  to  be  regretted  as  a  pas 
sage  of  American  history.  But  his  living  appeal  to 
my  indulgence  comes  to  me  from  his  grave  as  a  call 
for  his  defence,  however  little  needed,  at  least  as 
a  part  of  my  tribute  to  his  memory.  It  is  little 
needed,  because  the  case  is  clear  enough  to  all 
intelligent  readers  of  our  diplomatic  history,  and 
because  his  cause  has  been  amply  sustained  by 
others  in  many  ways  better  qualified  than  myself 
to  do  it  justice.  The  task  is  painful,  for  if  a  wrong 
was  done  him  it  must  be  laid  at  the  doors  of  those 
whom  the  nation  has  delighted  to  honor  and  whose 
services  no  error  of  judgment  or  feeling  or  conduct 
can  ever  induce  us  to  forget.  If  he  confessed  him- 


156 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


His  nomina 
tion  unani 
mously  con 
firmed. 


He  goes  to 
England. 


Addresses  at 
Liverpool. 


Conversation 
with  Lord 
Clarendon. 


Some  expres 
sions  object 
ed  to. 


self  liable,  like  tlie  rest  of  us,  to  mistakes  and  short 
comings,  we  must  remember  that  the  great  officers 
of  the  Government  who  decreed  his  downfall  were 
not  less  the  subjects  of  human  infirmity. 

The  outline  to  be  filled  up  is  this :  A  new  admin 
istration  had  just  been  elected.  The  "  Alabama 
Treaty,"  negotiated  by  Motley's  predecessor,  Mr. 
Eeverdy  Johnson,  had  been  rejected  by  the  Senate. 
The  minister  was  recalled,  and  Motley,  nominated 
without  opposition  and  unanimously  confirmed  by 
the  Senate,  was  sent  to  England  in  his  place.  He 
was  welcomed  most  cordially  on  his  arrival  at  Liver 
pool,  and  replied  in  a  similar  strain  of  good  feeling, 
expressing  the  same  kindly  sentiments  which  may 
be  found  in  his  instructions.  Soon  after  arriving 
in  London  he  had  a  conversation  with  Lord  Claren 
don,  the  British  Foreign  Secretary,  of  which  he  sent 
a  full  report  to  his  own  government.  While  the 
reported  conversation  was  generally  approved  of  in 
the  government's  despatch  acknowledging  it,  it  was 
hinted  that  some  of  its  expressions  were  stronger 
than  were  required  by  the  instructions,  and  that 
one  of  its  points  was  not  conveyed  in  precise  con 
formity  with  the  President's  view.  The  criticism 
was  very  gently  worded,  and  the  despatch  closed 
with  a  somewhat  guarded  paragraph  repeating  the 
Government's  approbation. 

This  was  the  first  offence  alleged  against  Mr. 


A  Memoir. 


157 


Motley.  The  second  ground  of  complaint  was  that 
he  had  shown  written  minutes  of  this  conversation 
to  Lord  Clarendon  to  obtain  his  confirmation  of  its 
exactness,  and  that  he  had  —  as  he  said,  inadver 
tently  —  omitted  to  make  mention  to  the  Govern 
ment  of  this  circumstance  until  some  weeks  after 
the  time  of  the  interview. 

He  was  requested  to  explain  to  Lord  Clarendon 
that  a  portion  of  his  presentation  and  treatment  of 
the  subject  discussed  at  the  interview  immediately 
after  his  arrival  was  disapproved  by  the  Secretary 
of  State,  and  he  did  so  in  a  written  communication, 
in  which  he  used  the  very  words  employed  by  Mr. 
Fish  in  his  criticism  of  the  conversation  with  Lord 
Clarendon. 

An  alleged  mistake ;  a  temperate  criticism,  coup 
led  with  a  general  approval ;  a  rectification  of  the 
mistake  criticised.  All  this  within  the  first  two 
months  of  Mr.  Motley's  official  residence  in  London. 

No  further  fault  was  found  with  him,  so  far  as 
appears,  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties,  to  which 
he  must  have  devoted  himself  faithfully,  for  he 
writes  to  me,  under  the  date  of  December  27,  1870 : 
"  I  have  worked  harder  in  the  discharge  of  this  mis 
sion  than  I  ever  did  in  my  life."  This  from  a  man 
whose  working  powers  astonished  the  old  Dutch 
archivist,  Groen  van  Prinsterer,  means  a  good  deal. 

More  than  a  year  had  elapsed  since  the  inter- 


158 


John  Lotltrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


Instructions 
of  Septem 
ber  25, 1869. 


No  sign  of 
distrust  of 
him  or  dis 
content  with 
him. 


view  with  Lord  Clarendon,  which  had  been  the 
subject  of  criticism.  In  the  mean  time  a  paper  of 
instructions  was  sent  to  Motley,  dated  September 
25,  1869,  in  which  the  points  in  the  report  of  his 
interview  which  had  been  found  fault  with  are  so 
nearly  covered  by  similar  expressions,  that  there 
seemed  no  real  ground  left  for  difference  between 
the  Government  and  the  minister.  Whatever  over 
statement  there  had  been,  these  new  instructions 
would  imply  that  the  Government  was  now  ready  to 
go  quite  as  far  as  the  minister  had  gone,  and  in  some 
points  to  put  the  case  still  more  strongly.  Every 
thing  was  going  on  quietly.  Important  business 
had  been  transacted,  with  no  sign  of  distrust  or 
discontent  on  the  part  of  the  Government  as  re 
garded  Motley.  Whatever  mistake  he  was  thought 
to  have  committed  was  condoned  by  amicable  treat 
ment,  neutralized  by  the  virtual  indorsement  of  the 
Government  in  the  instructions  of  the  25th  of  Sep 
tember,  and  obsolete  as  a  ground  of  quarrel  by 
lapse  of  time.  The  question  about  which  the  mis 
understanding,  if  such  it  deserves  to  be  called, 
had  taken  place,  was  no  longer  a  possible  source  of 
disagreement,  as  it  had  long  been  settled  that  the 
Alabama  case  should  only  be  opened  again  at  the 
suggestion  of  the  British  Government,  and  that  it 
should  be  transferred  to  Washington  whenever  that 
suggestion  should  again  bring  it  up  for  consideration. 


A  Memoir. 


159 


Such  was  the  aspect  of  affairs  at  the  American 


Legation  in  London. 


No  foreign  minister  felt  more 


secure  in  his  place  than  Mr.  Motley.  "  I  thought 
myself,"  he  says  in  the  letter  of  December  27,  "  en 
tirely  in  the  confidence  of  my  own  government, 
and  I  know  that  I  had  the  thorough  confidence 
and  the  friendship  of  the  leading  personages  in 
England."  All  at  once,  on  the  first  of  July,  1870, 
a  letter  was  written  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  re 
questing  him  to  resign.  This  gentle  form  of  vio 
lence  is  well  understood  in  the  diplomatic  service. 
Horace  "Walpole  says,  speaking  of  Lady  Archibald 
Hamilton :  "  They  have  civilly  asked  her  and 
grossly  forced  her  to  ask  civilly  to  go  away,  which 
she  has  done,  with  a  pension  of  twelve  hundred  a 
year."  Such  a  request  is  like  the  embrace  of  the 
"  virgin  "  in  old  torture-chambers.  She  is  robed  in 
soft  raiment,  but  beneath  it  are  the  knife-blades 
which  are  ready  to  lacerate  and  kill  the  victim,  if 
he  awaits  the  pressure  of  the  machinery  already  in 
motion. 

Mr.  Motley  knew  well  what  was  the  logical 
order  in  an  official  execution,  and  saw  fit  to  let 
the  Government  work  its  will  upon  him  as  its  ser 
vant.  In  November  he  was  recalled. 

The  recall  of  a  minister  under  such  circumstan 
ces  is  an  unusual  if  not  an  unprecedented  occur 
rence.  The  government  which  appoints  a  citizen 


160 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


to  represent  the  country  at  a  foreign  court  assumes 
a  very  serious  obligation  to  him.  The  next  admin 
istration  may  turn  him  out  and  nothing  will  be 
thought  of  it.  He  may  be  obliged  to  ask  for  his 
passports  and  leave  all  at  once  if  war  is  threatened 
between  his  own  country  and  that  which  he  repre 
sents.  He  may,  of  course,  be  recalled  for  gross 
misconduct.  But  his  dismissal  is  a  very  serious 
matter  to  him  personally,  and  not  to  be  thought  of 
on  the  ground  of  passion  or  caprice.  Marriage  is 
a  simple  business,  but  divorce  is  a  very  different 
thing.  The  world  wants  to  know  the  reason  of  it ; 
the  law  demands  its  justification.  It  was  a  great 
blow  to  Mr.  Motley,  a  cause  of  indignation  to  those 
who  were  interested  in  him,  a  surprise  and  a  mys 
tery  to  the  world  in  general. 

When  he,  his  friends,  and  the  public,  all  startled 
by  this  unexpected  treatment,  looked  to  find  an 
explanation  of  it,  one  was  found  which  seemed  to 
many  quite  sufficient.  Mr.  Sumner  had  been  prom 
inent  among  those  who  had  favored  his  appoint 
ment.  A  very  serious  breach  had  taken  place 
between  the  President  arid  Mr.  Sumner  on  the 
important  San  Domingo  question.  It  was  a  quar 
rel,  in  short,  neither  more  nor  less,  at  least  so  far 
as  the  President  was  concerned.  The  proposed 
San  Domingo  treaty  had  just  been  rejected  by  the 
Senate,  on  the  thirtieth  day  of  June,  and  imrnedi- 


A  Memoir. 


161 


ately  thereupon,  —  the  very  next  day,  —  the  letter 
requesting  Mr.  Motley's  resignation  was  issued  by 
the  Executive.  This  fact  was  interpreted  as  imply 
ing  something  more  than  a  mere  coincidence.  It 
was  thought  that  Sumner's  friend,  who  had  been 
supported  by  him  as  a  candidate  for  high  office, 
who  shared  many  of  his  political  ideas  and  feel 
ings,  who  was  his  intimate  associate,  his  fellow- 
townsman,  his  companion  in  scholarship  and  cul 
tivation,  his  sympathetic  co -laborer  in  many  ways, 
had  been  accounted  and  dealt  with  as  the  ally  of 
an  enemy,  and  that  the  shaft  which  struck  to  the 
heart  of  the  sensitive  Envoy  had  glanced  from  the 
ces  triplex  of  the  obdurate  Senator. 

Mr.  Motley  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of 
State  immediately  after  his  recall,  in  which  he 
reviewed  his  relations  with  the  Government  from 
the  time  of  his  taking  office,  and  showed  that  no 
sufficient  reason  could  be  assigned  for  the  treat 
ment  to  which  he  had  been  subjected.  He  referred 
finally  to  the  public  rumor  which  assigned  the 
President's  hostility  to  his  friend  Sumner,  growing 
out  of  the  San  Domingo  treaty  question,  as  the  cause 
of  his  own  removal,  and  to  the  coincidence  between 
the  dates  of  the  rejection  of  the  treaty  and  his  dismis 
sal,  with  an  evident  belief  that  these  two  occurrences 
were  connected  by  something  more  than  accident. 

To  this,  a  reply  was  received  from  the  Secretary 


162 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXL 
1869-1870. 


The  reply  to 
Mr.  Motley. 


No  answer 
possible  to 
such  a  letter. 


Hon.  John 
Jay  and  the 
New  York 
Historical 
Society. 


Mr.  Jay's 
publication, 
"  Motley's 
Appeal  to 
History." 


of  State's  office,  signed  by  Mr.  Fish,  but  so  objec 
tionable  in  its  tone  and  expressions  that  it  has  been 
generally  doubted  whether  the  paper  could  claim 
anything  more  of  the  Secretary's  hand  than  his  sig 
nature.  It  travelled  back  to  the  old  record  of  the 
conversation  with  Lord  Clarendon,  more  than  a 
year  and  a  half  before,  took  up  the  old  exceptions, 
warmed  them  over  into  grievances,  and  joined  with 
them  whatever  the  captatores  verborum,  not  extinct 
since  Daniel  Webster's  time,  could  add  to  their  num 
ber.  This  was  the  letter  which  was  rendered  so 
peculiarly  offensive  by  a  most  undignified  compari 
son  which  startled  every  well-bred  reader.  No  an 
swer  was  possible  to  such  a  letter,  and  the  matter 
rested  until  the  death  of  Mr.  Motley  caused  it  to 
be  brought  up  once  more  for  judgment. 

The  Honorable  John  Jay,  in  his  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  Mr.  Motley,  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  New 
York  Historical  Society,  vindicated  his  character 
against  the  attacks  of  the  late  Executive  in  such 
a  way  as  to  leave  an  unfavorable  impression  as  to 
the  course  of  the  Government.  Objection  was  made 
on  this  account  to  placing  the  tribute  upon  the  min 
utes  of  the  Society.  This  led  to  a  publication  by 
Mr.  Jay,  entitled  "  Motley's  Appeal  to  History,"  in 
which  the  propriety  of  the  Society's  action  is  ques 
tioned,  and  the  wrong  done  to  him  insisted  upon 
and  further  illustrated. 


A  Memoir, 


163 


The  defence  could  not  have  fallen  into  better 
hands.  Bearing  a  name  which  is,  in  itself,  a  title  to 
the  confidence  of  the  American  people,  a  diploma 
tist  familiar  with  the  rights,  the  customs,  the  tradi 
tions,  the  courtesies,  which  belong  to  the  diplomatic 
service,  the  successor  of  Mr.  Motley  at  Vienna, 
and  therefore  familiar  with  his  official  record,  not 
self-made,  which  too  commonly  means  half-made, 
but  with  careful  training  added  to  the  instincts  to 
which  he  had  a  right  by  inheritance,  he  could  not 
allow  the  memory  of  such  a  scholar,  of  such  a  high- 
minded  lover  of  his  country,  of  so  true  a  gentleman 
as  Mr.  Motley,  to  remain  without  challenge  under 
the  stigma  of  official  condemnation.  I  must  refer  to 
Mr.  Jay's  Memorial  tribute  as  printed  in  the  news 
papers  of  the  day,  and  to  his  "  Appeal "  published 
in  the  International  Eeview,  for  his  convincing 
presentation  of  the  case,  and  content  myself  with 
a  condensed  statement  of  the  general  and  special 
causes  of  complaint  against  Mr.  Motley,  and  the  ex 
planations  which  suggest  themselves,  as  abundantly 
competent  to  show  the  insufficiency  of  the  reasons 
alleged  by  the  Government  as  an  excuse  for  the 
manner  in  which  he  was  treated. 

The  grounds  of  complaint  against  Mr.  Motley  are 
to  be  looked  for : 

1.  In  the  letter  of  Mr.  Fish  to  Mr.  Moran,  of 
December  30,  1870. 


164 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


Examination 
of  the  ground 
of  complaint 
against  Mr. 
Motley. 


Conversation 
implies  ex 
temporiza 
tion. 


2.  In  Mr.  Bancroft  Davis's  letter  to  the  New 
York  Herald  of  January  4,  1878,  entitled,  "Mr. 
Sumner,  the  Alabama  Claims    and  their   Settle 
ment." 

3.  The  reported  conversations  of  General  Grant. 

4.  The  reported  conversations  of  Mr.  Fish. 

In  considering  Mr.  Fish's  letter,  we  must  first 
notice  its  animus.  The  manner  in  which  Dickens's 
two  old  women  are  brought  in  is  not  only  indeco 
rous,  but  it  shows  a  state  of  feeling  from  which 
nothing  but  harsh  interpretation  of  every  question 
able  expression  of  Mr.  Motley's  was  to  be  expected. 

There  is  not  the  least  need  of  maintaining  the 
perfect  fitness  and  rhetorical  felicity  of  every  phrase 
and  every  word  used  by  him  in  his  interview  with 
Lord  Palmerston.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  a 
minister,  when  about  to  hold  a  conversation  with 
a  representative  of  the  government  to  which  he  is 
accredited,  will  commit  his  instructions  to  memory 
and  recite  them,  like  a  school-boy  "  speaking  his 
piece."  He  will  give  them  more  or  less  in  his  own 
language,  amplifying,  it  may  be,  explaining,  illus 
trating,  at  any  rate  paraphrasing  in  some  degree,  but 
endeavoring  to  convey  an  idea  of  their  essential 
meaning.  In  fact,  as  any  one  can  see,  a  conversation 
between  two  persons  must  necessarily  imply  a  cer 
tain  amount  of  extemporization  on  the  part  of  both. 
I  do  not  believe  any  long  and  important  conference 


A  Memoir. 


was  ever  had  between  two  able  men  without  each 
of  them  feeling  that  he  had  not  spoken  exactly  in 
all  respects  as  he  would  if  he  could  say  all  over 
again. 

Doubtless,  therefore,  Mr.  Motley's  report  of  his 
conversation  shows  that  some  of  his  expressions 
might  have  been  improved,  and  others  might  as  well 
have  been  omitted.  A  man  does  not  change  his  tem 
perament  on  taking  office.  General  Jackson  still 
swore  "  by  the  Eternal,"  and  his  illustrious  military 
successor  of  a  more  recent  period  seems,  by  his  own 
showing,  to  have  been  liable  to  sudden  impulses  of 
excitement.  It  might  be  said  of  Motley,  as  it  was 
said  of  Shakespeare  by  Ben  Jonson,  "  aliquando  suf- 
flaminandus  erat."  Yet  not  too  much  must  be  made 
of  this  concession.  Only  a  determination  to  make 
out  a  case  could,  as  it  seems  to  me,  have  framed 
such  an  indictment  as  that  which  the  Secretary 
constructed  by  stringing  together  a  slender  list  of 
pretended  peccadillos.  One  instance  will  show  the 
extreme  slightness  which  characterizes  many  of  the 
grounds  of  inculpation :  — 

The  instructions  say,  "  The  government,  in  reject 
ing  the  recent  convention,  abandons  neither  its  own 
claims  nor  those  of  its  citizens,"  etc. 

Mr.  Motley  said,  in  the  course  of  his  conversation, 
"  At  present,  the  United  States  Government,  while 
withdrawing  neither  its  national  claims  nor  the 


166 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


claims  of  its  individual  citizens  against  the  British 
government,"  etc. 

Mr.  Fish  says,  "  The  determination  of  this  gov 
ernment  not  to  abandon  its  claims  nor  those  of  its 
citizens,  was  stated  parenthetically,  and  in  such  a 
subordinate  way  as  not  necessarily  to  attract  the 
attention  of  Lord  Clarendon." 

What  reported  conversation  can  stand  a  captious 
criticism  like  this  ?  Are  there  not  two  versions  of 
the  ten  commandments  which  were  given  out  in 
the  thunder  and  smoke  of  Sinai,  and  would  the 
Secretary  hold  that  this  would  have  been  a  suffi 
cient  reason  to  recall  Moses  from  his  "  Divine  Le 
gation  "  at  the  court  of  the  Almighty  ? 

There  are  certain  expressions  which,  as  Mr.  Fish 
shows  them  apart  from  their  connection,  do  very 
certainly  seem  in  bad  taste,  if  not  actually  indis 
creet  and  unjustifiable.  Let  me  give  an  example  : 
"  ....  instead  of  expressing  the  hope  enter 
tained  by  this  government  that  there  would  be  an 
early,  satisfactory,  and  friendly  settlement  of  the 
questions  at  issue,  he  volunteered  the  unnecessary, 
and,  from  the  manner  in  which  it  was  thrust  in,  the 
highly  objectionable  statement  that  '  the  United 
States  Government  had  no  insidious  purposes,'" 
etc. 

This  sounds  very  badly  as  Mr.  Fish  puts  it ;  let 
us  see  how  it  stands  in  its  proper  connection  :  — 


A  Memoir. 


167 


"  He  [Lord  Clarendon]  added  with  some  feeling, 
that  in  his  opinion  it  would  be  highly  objectionable 
that  the  question  should  be  hung  up  on  a  peg,  to 
be  taken  down  at  some  convenient  moment  for  us, 
when  it  might  be  difficult  for  the  British  govern 
ment  to  enter  upon  its  solution,  and  when  they 
might  go  into  the  debate  at  a  disadvantage.  These 
were,  as  nearly  as  I  can  remember,  his  words,  and 
I  replied  very  earnestly  that  I  had  already  answered 
that  question  when  I  said  that  my  instructions  were 
to  propose  as  brief  a  delay  as  would  probably  be 
requisite  for  the  cooling  of  passions  and  for  produ 
cing  the  calm  necessary  for  discussing  the  defects 
of  the  old  treaty  and  a  basis  for  a  new  one.  The 
United  States  Government  had  no  insidious  pur 
poses,"  etc. 

Is  it  not  evident  that  Lord  Clarendon  suggested  the 
idea  which  Mr.  Motley  repelled  as  implying  an  in 
sidious  mode  of  action  ?  Is  it  not  just  as  clear  that 
Mr.  Fish's  way  of  reproducing  the  expression  with 
out  the  insinuation  which  called  it  forth  is  a  practical 
misstatement  which  does  Mr.  Motley  great  wrong  ? 

One  more  example  of  the  method  of  wringing  a 
dry  cloth  for  drops  of  evidence  ought  to  be  enough 
to  show  the  whole  spirit  of  the  paper. 

Mr.  Fish,  in  his  instructions.  "  It  might,  indeed, 
well  have  occurred  in  the  event  of  the  selection  by 
lot  of  the  arbitrator  or  umpire  in  different  cases,  in- 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


Lord  Clar 
endon's  in 
sinuation. 


Motley's 
reply. 


Unfair 
treatment 
of  his  words. 


168 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


volving,  however,  precisely  the  same  principles,  that 
different  awards,  resting  upon  antagonistic  prin 
ciples,  might  have  been  made." 

Mr.  Motley,  in  the  conversation  with  Lord  Claren 
don "I  called  his  lordship's  attention  to  your 

very  judicious  suggestion  that  the  throwing  of  the 
dice  for  umpires  might  bring  about  opposite  decis 
ions  in  cases  arising  out  of  identical  principles. 
He  agreed  entirely  that  no  principle  was  estab 
lished  by  the  treaty,  but  that  the  throwing  of  dice 
or  drawing  of  lots  was  not  a  new  invention  on  that 
occasion,  but  a  not  uncommon  method  in  arbitra 
tions.  I  only  expressed  the  opinion  that  such  an 
aleatory  process  seemed  an  unworthy  method  in 
arbitrations,"  etc. 

Mr.  Fish,  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Moran.  "  That  he 
had  in  his  mind  at  that  interview  something  else 
than  his  letter  of  instructions  from  this  Department 
would  appear  to  be  evident,  when  he  says  that '  he 
called  his  lordship's  attention  to  your  [my]  very 
judicious  suggestion  that  the  throwing  of  dice  for 
umpire  might  bring  about  opposite  decisions.'  The 
instructions  which  Mr.  Motley  received  from  me 
contained  no  suggestion  about  '  throwing  of  dice.' 
That  idea  is  embraced  in  the  suggestive  words 
'aleatory  process'  (adopted  by  Mr.  Motley),  but 
previously  applied  in  a  speech  made  in  the  Senate 
on  the  question  of  ratifying  the  treaty." 


A  Memoir. 


169 


diaries  Sumner's  Speech  on  the  Johnson-Claren 
don  Treaty,  April  13,  1869 "In  the  event 

of  failure  to  agree,  the  arbitrator  is  determined 
'by  lot'  out  of  two  persons  named  by  each  side. 
Even  if  this  aleatory  proceeding  were  a  proper  de 
vice  in  the  umpirage  of  private  claims,  it  is  strongly 
inconsistent  with  the  solemnity  which  belongs  to 
the  present  question." 

It  is  "  suggestive  "  that  the  critical  Secretary,  so 
keen  in  detecting  conversational  inaccuracies,  hav 
ing  but  two  words  to  quote  from  a  printed  docu 
ment,  got  one  of  them  wrong.  But  this  trivial 
comment  must  not  lead  the  careful  reader  to  neg 
lect  to  note  how  much  is  made  of  what  is  really 
nothing  at  all.  The  word  aleatory,  whether  used 
in  its  original  and  limited  sense,  or  in  its  derived 
extension  as  a  technical  term  of  the  civil  law,  was 
appropriate  and  convenient ;  one  especially  likely 
to  be  remembered  by  any  person  who  had  read  Mr. 
Sumner's  speech,  —  and  everybody  had  read  it,  — 
the  Secretary  himself  doubtless  got  the  sugges 
tion  of  determining  the  question  "by  lot"  from  it. 
What  more  natural  than  that  it  should  be  used 
again  when  the  subject  of  appealing  to  chance  came 
up  in  conversation?  It  "was  an  excellent  good 
word  before  it  was  ill-sorted,"  and  we  were  for 
tunate  in  having  a  minister  who  was  scholar 
enough  to  know  what  it  meant.  The  language 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


Aleatory. 


170 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


used  by  Mr.  Motley  conveyed  the  idea  of  his  in 
structions  plainly  enough,  and  threw  in  a  compli 
ment  to  their  author  which  should  have  saved  this 
passage  at  least  from  the  wringing  process.  —  The 
example  just  given  is,  like  the  concession  of  bellig 
erency  to  the  insurgents  by  Great  Britain,  chiefly 
important  as  "  showing  animus." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  bring  forward  other 
instances  of  virtual  misrepresentation.  If  Mr.  Mot 
ley  could  have  talked  his  conversation  over  again, 
he  would  very  probably  have  changed  some  expres 
sions.  But  he  felt  bound  to  repeat  the  interview 
exactly  as  it  occurred,  with  all  the  errors  to  which 
its  extemporaneous  character  exposed  it.  When  a 
case  was  to  be  made  out  against  him,  the  Secretary 
wrote,  December  30,  1870  :  — 

"  Well  might  he  say,  as  he  did  in  a  subsequent 
despatch  on  the  15th  of  July,  1869,  that  he  had 
gone  beyond  the  strict  letter  of  his  instructions. 
He  might  have  added,  in  direct  opposition  to  their 
temper  and  spirit." 

Of  the  same  report  the  Secretary  had  said,  June 
28,1869:  — 

"  Your  general  presentation  and  treatment  of  the 
several  subjects  discussed  in  that  interview  meet 
the  approval  of  this  Department."  This  general 
approval  is  qualified  by  mild  criticism  of  a  single 
statement  as  not  having  been  conveyed  in  "  precise 


A  Memoir. 


171 


conformity  "  to  the  President's  view.  The  minister 
was  told  he  might  be  well  content  to  rest  the  ques 
tion  on  the  very  forcible  presentation  he  had  made 
of  the  American  side  of  the  question,  and  that  if 
there  were  expressions  used  stronger  than  were 
required  by  his  instructions  they  were  in  the  right 
direction.  The  mere  fact  that  a  minute  of  this 
conversation  was  confidentially  submitted  to  Lord 
Clarendon  in  order  that  our  own  Government  might 
have  his  authority  for  the  accuracy  of  the  record, 
which  was  intended  exclusively  for  its  own  use, 
and  that  this  circumstance  was  overlooked  and  not 
reported  to  the  government  until  some  weeks  after 
ward,  are  the  additional  charges  against  Mr.  Mot 
ley.  The  submission  of  the  despatch  containing 
an  account  of  the  interview,  the  Secretary  says,  is 
not  inconsistent  with  diplomatic  usage,  but  it  is 
inconsistent  with  the  duty  of  a  minister  not  to  in 
form  his  government  of  that  submission.  "Mr. 
Motley  submitted  the  draft  of  his  No.  8  to  Lord 
Clarendon,  and  failed  to  communicate  that  fact  to 
his  government."  —  He  did  inform  Mr.  Fish,  at 
any  rate,  on  the  30th  of  July,  and  alleged  "  inad 
vertence  "  as  the  reason  for  his  omission  to  do  it 
before. 

Inasmuch  as  submitting  the  despatch  was  not 
inconsistent  with  diplomatic  usage,  nothing  seems 
left  to  find  fault  with  but  the  not  very  long  delay 


172 


John  LotJirop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


The  Alabama 
question. 


Why  the  dis 
cussion  was 
withdrawn 
from  London. 


in  mentioning  the  fact,  or  in  his  making  the  note 
"  private  and  confidential,"  as  is  so  frequently  done 
in  diplomatic  correspondence. 

Such  were  the  grounds  of  complaint.  On  the 
strength  of  the  conversation  which  had  met  with 
the  general  approval  of  the  government,  tempered 
by  certain  qualifications,  and  of  the  omission  to  re 
port  immediately  to  the  government  the  fact  of  its 
verification  by  Lord  Clarendon,  the  Secretary  rests 
the  case  against  Mr.  Motley.  On  these  grounds  it 
was  that,  according  to  him,  the  President  with 
drew  all  right  to  discuss  the  Alabama  question 
from  the  minister  whose  dismissal  was  now  only 
a  question  of  time.  —  But  other  evidence  comes  in 
here. 

Mr.  Motley  says,  "  It  was,  as  I  supposed,  under 
stood  before  my  departure  for  England,  although 
not  publicly  announced,  that  the  so-called  Alaba 
ma  negotiations,  whenever  renewed,  should  be  con 
ducted  at  Washington,  in  case  of  the  consent  of 
the  British  Government." 

Mr.  Sumner  says,  in  his  "  Explanation  in  Reply 
to  an  Assault,"  "  the  Secretary  in  a  letter  to  me  at 
Boston,  dated  at  Washington,  October  9.  1869,  in 
forms  me  that  the  discussion  of  the  question  was 
withdrawn  from  London  'because  (the  italics  are 
the  Secretary's)  we  think  that  when  renewed  it 
can  be  carried  on  here  with  a  better  prospect  of 


A  Memoir. 


173 


settlement,  than  where  the  late  attempt  at  a  con 
vention  which  resulted  so  disastrously  and  was 
conducted  so  strangely  was  had ' ;  and  what  the 
Secretary  thus  wrote  he  repeated  in  conversation 
when  we  met,  carefully  making  the  transfer  to 
Washington  depend  upon  our  advantage  here,  from 
the  presence  of  the  Senate,  —  thus  showing  that  the 
pretext  put  forth  to  wound  Mr.  Motley  was  an 
afterthought." 

Again  we  may  fairly  ask  how  the  government 
came  to  send  a  despatch  like  that  of  September  25, 
1869,  in  which  the  views  and  expressions  for  which 
Mr.  Motley's  conversation  had  been  criticised  were 
so  nearly  reproduced,  and  with  such  emphasis  that 
Mr.  Motley  says,  in  a  letter  to  me,  dated  April  8, 
1871,  "  It  not  only  covers  all  the  ground  which  I 
ever  took,  but  goes  far  beyond  it.  No  one  has  ever 
used  stronger  language  to  the  British  Government 

than  is  contained  in  that  despatch It  is  very 

able  and  well  worth  your  reading.  Lord  Clarendon 
called  it  to  me  '  Surnner's  speech  over  again.'  It 
was  thought  by  the  English  cabinet  to  have  '  out- 
Sumnered  Sumner,'  and  now  our  Government,  think 
ing  that  every  one  in  the  United  States  had  forgot 
ten  the  despatch,  makes  believe  that  I  was  removed 
because  my  sayings  and  doings  in  England  were  too 
much  influenced  by  Sumner ! "  Mr.  Motley  goes 
on  to  speak  of  the  report  that  an  offer  of  his  place 


174 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


Mr.  Bancroft 
Davis's  let 
ter. 


in  England  was  made  to  Sumner  "  to  get  him  out 
of  the  way  of  San  Domingo."  The  facts  concern 
ing  this  offer  are  now  sufficiently  known  to  the 
public. 

Here  I  must  dismiss  Mr.  Fish's  letter  to  Mr. 
Moran,  having,  as  I  trust,  sufficiently  shown  the 
spirit  in  which  it  was  written  and  the  strained  inter 
pretations  and  manifest  overstatements  by  which  it 
attempts  to  make  out  its  case  against  Mr.  Motley.  I 
will  not  parade  the  two  old  women,  whose  untimely 
and  unseemly  introduction  into  the  dress-circle  of 
diplomacy  was  hardly  to  have  been  expected  of  the 
high  official  whose  name  is  at  the  bottom  of  this 
paper.  They  prove  nothing,  they  disprove  nothing, 
they  illustrate  nothing  —  except  that  a  statesman 
may  forget  himself.  Neither  will  I  do  more  than 
barely  allude  to  the  unfortunate  reference  to  the 
death  of  Lord  Clarendon  as  connected  with  Mr. 
Motley's  removal,  so  placidly  disposed  of  by  a  sen 
tence  or  two  in  the  London  Times  of  January  24, 
1871.  I  think  we  may  consider  ourselves  ready 
for  the  next  witness. 

Mr.  J.  C.  Bancroft  Davis,  Assistant  Secretary  of 
State  under  President  Grant  and  Secretary  Fish, 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  New  York  Herald,  under 
the  date  of  January  4,  1878,  since  reprinted  as  a 
pamphlet  and  entitled  "  Mr.  Sumner,  the  Alabama 
Claims  and  their  Settlement."  Mr.  Sumner  was 


A  Memoir. 

never  successfully  attacked  when  living,  —  except 
with  a  bludgeon,  —  and  his  friends  have  more  than 
sufficiently  vindicated  him  since  his  death.  But 
Mr.  Motley  comes  in  for  his  share  of  animadver 
sion  in  Mr.  Davis's  letter.  He  has  nothing  of  im 
portance  to  add  to  Mr.  Fish's  criticisms  on  the 
interview  with  Lord  Clarendon.  Only  he  brings 
out  the  head  and  front  of  Mr.  Motley's  offending  by 
italicizing  three  very  brief  passages  from  his  con 
versation  at  this  interview ;  not  discreetly,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  for  they  will  not  bear  the  strain  that 
is  put  upon  them.  These  are  the  passages : — 

1.  "  hut  that  such  measures  must  always  lie  taken 
with  a  full   view  of  the  grave   responsibilities  as 
sumed." 

2.  "  and  as  being  the  fountain  head  of  the  disasters 
which  had  been  caused  to  the  American  people" 

3.  "  as  the  fruits  of  the  proclamation" 

1.  It  is  true  that  nothing  was  said  of  responsi 
bility  in  Mr.  Motley's  instructions.  But  the  idea 
was  necessarily  involved  in  their  statements.  For 
if,  as  Mr.  Motley's  instructions  say,  the  right  of  a 
Power  "  to  define  its  own  relations,"  etc.,  when  a 
civil  conflict  has  arisen  in  another  State  depends 
on  its  (the  conflict's)  having  "  attained  a  sufficient 
complexity,  magnitude,  and  completeness,"  inas 
much  as  that  Power  has  to  judge  whether  it  has  or 


175 


176 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


has  not  fulfilled  these  conditions,  and  is  of  course 
liable  to  judge  wrong,  every  such  act  of  judgment 
must  be  attended  with  grave  responsibilities.  The 
instructions  say  that  "  the  necessity  and  propriety 
of  the  original  concession  of  belligerency  by  Great 
Britain  at  the  time  it  was  made  have  been  con 
tested  and  are  not  admitted."  It  follows  beyond  dis 
pute  that  Great  Britain  may  in  this  particular  case 
have  incurred  grave  responsibilities;  in  fact,  the 
whole  negotiations  implied  as  much.  Perhaps  Mr. 
Motley  need  not  have  used  the  word  "  responsibili 
ties."  But  considering  that  the  Government  itself 
said  in  despatch  No.  70,  September  25,  1869,  "  The 
President  does  not  deny,  on  the  contrary  he  main 
tains,  that  every  sovereign  power  decides  for  itself 
on  its  responsibility  whether  or  not  it  will,  at  a  given 
time,  accord  the  status  of  belligerency,"  etc.,  it  was 
hardly  worth  while  to  use  italics  about  Mr.  Motley's 
employment  of  the  same  language  as  constituting 
a  grave  cause  of  offence. 

2.  Mr.  Motley's  expression  "as  being  the  fountain 
head  of  the  disasters"  is  a  conversational  paraphrase 
of  the  words  of  his  instructions,  "  as  it  shows  the 
beginning  and  the  animus  of  that  course  of  conduct 
which  resulted  so  disastrously "  which  is  not  "  in 
precise  conformity"  with  his  instructions,  but  is 
just  such  a  variation  as  is  to  be  expected  when  one 
is  talking  with  another  and  using  the  words  that 


A  Memoir. 


177 


suggest  themselves  at  the  moment,  just  as  the  fa 
miliar  expression  "  hung  up  on  a  peg  "  probably 
suggested  itself  to  Lord  Clarendon. 

3.  "  the  fruits  of  the  proclamation  "  is  so  incon 
siderable  a  variation  on  the  text  of  the  instructions 
"  supplemented  by  acts  causing  direct  damage  "  that 
the  Secretary's  hint  about  want  of  precise  conform 
ity  seems  hardly  to  have  been  called  for. 

It  is  important  to  notice  this  point  in  the  instruc 
tions  :  With  other  Powers  Mr.  Motley  was  to  take 
the  position  that  the  "  recognition  of  the  insurgents' 
state  of  war  "  was  made  "  no  ground  of  complaint "  ; 
with  Great  Britain  that  the  cause  of  grievance  was 
"not  so  much"  placed  upon  the  issuance  of  this 
recognition  as  upon  her  conduct  under,  and  subse 
quent  to,  such  recognition. 

There  is  no  need  of  maintaining  the  exact  fitness 
of  every  expression  used  by  Mr.  Motley.  But  any 
candid  person  who  will  carefully  read  the  govern 
ment's  despatch  No.  70,  dated  September  25,  1869, 
will  see  that  a  government  holding  such  language 
could  find  nothing  in  Mr.  Motley's  expressions  in  a 
conversation  held  at  his  first  official  interview  to 
visit  with  official  capital  punishment  more  than 
a  year  afterwards.  If  Mr.  Motley  had,  as  it  was 
pretended,  followed  Sumner,  Mr.  Fish  had  "out- 
Sumnered  "  the  Senator  himself. 

Mr.  Davis's  pamphlet  would  hardly  be  complete 


178 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXI 
1869-1870. 


Somebody's 
private  let 
ter. 


Its  question- 
nble  value. 


without  a  mysterious  letter  from  an  unnamed 
writer,  whether  a  faithless  friend,  a  disguised  ene 
my,  a  secret  emissary,  or  an  injudicious  alarmist, 
we  have  no  means  of  judging  for  ourselves.  The 
minister  appears  to  have  been  watched  by  some 
body  in  London,  as  he  was  in  Vienna.  This  some 
body  wrote  a  private  Jetter  in  which  he  expressed 
"  fear  and  regret  that  Mr.  Motley's  bearing  in  his 
social  intercourse  was  throwing  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  a  future  settlement."  The  charge  as  men 
tioned  in  Mr.  Davis's  letter  is  hardly  entitled  to 
our  attention.  Mr.  Sumner  considered  it  the  work 
of  an  enemy,  and  the  recollection  of  the  M'Crackin 
letter  might  well  have  made  the  government  cau 
tious  of  listening  to  complaints  of  such  a  character. 
This  Somebody  may  have  been  one  whom  we 
should  call  Nobody.  We  cannot  help  remember 
ing  how  well  Outis  served  Odusseus  of  old,  when 
he  was  puzzled  to  extricate  himself  from  an  em 
barrassing  position.  Stat  nominis  umbra  is  a  poor 
showing  for  authority  to  support  an  attack  on  a 
public  servant  exposed  to  every  form  of  open  and 
insidious  abuse  from  those  who  are  prejudiced 
against  his  person  or  his  birthplace,  who  are  jeal 
ous  of  his  success,  envious  of  his  position,  hostile 
to  his  politics,  dwarfed  by  his  reputation,  or  hate 
him  by  the  divine  right  of  idiosyncrasy,  always 
liable,  too,  to  questioning  comment  from  well-mean- 


A  Memoir. 


179 


ing  friends  who  happen  to  be  suspicious  or  sensi 
tive  in  their  political  or  social  relations. 

The  reported  sayings  of  General  Grant  and  of 
Mr.  Fish  to  the  correspondents  who  talked  with 
them  may  be  taken  for  what  they  are  worth.  They 
sound  naturally  enough  to  have  come  from  the 
speakers  who  are  said  to  have  uttered  them.  I 
quote  the  most  important  part  of  the  Edinburgh 
letter,  September  11, 1877,  to  the  New  York  Herald. 
These  are  the  words  attributed  to  General  Grant. 

"Mr.  Motley  was  certainly  a  very  able,  very 
honest  gentleman,  fit  to  hold  any  official  position. 
But  he  knew  long  before  he  went  out  that  he 
would  have  to  go.  When  I  was  making  these  ap 
pointments,  Mr.  Sumner  came  to  me  and  asked  me 
to  appoint  Mr.  Motley  as  minister  to  the  court  of 
St.  James.  I  told  him  I  would,  and  did.  Soon 
after  Mr.  Sumner  made  that  violent  speech  about 
the  Alabama  claims,  and  the  British  government 
was  greatly  offended.  Mr.  Sumner  was  at  the  time 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs. 
Mr.  Motley  had  to  be  instructed.  The  instructions 
were  prepared  very  carefully,  and  after  Governor 
Fish  and  I  had  gone  over  them  for  the  last  time  I 
wrote  an  addendum  charging  him  that  above  all 
things  he  should  handle  the  subject  of  the  Ala 
bama  claims  with  the  greatest  delicacy.  Mr.  Mot 
ley,  instead  of  obeying  his  explicit  instructions, 


SECT.  XXI. 

1869-1870. 


Reputed 
sayings  of 
General 
Grant  and 
Mr.  Fish. 


General 
Grant's 
alleged 
explanation. 


180 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


General 
Grant's 
alleged 
explanation. 


Another 
alleged  con 
versation 
with  Gen 
eral  Grant. 


deliberately  fell  in  line  with  Sumner  and  thus 
added  insult  to  the  previous  injury.  As  soon  as  I 
heard  of  it  I  went  over  to  the  State  Department 
and  told  Governor  Fish  to  dismiss  Motley  at  once. 
I  was  very  angry  indeed,  and  I  have  been  sorry 
many  a  time  since  that  I  did  not  stick  to  my  first 
determination.  Mr.  Fish  advised  delay  because  of 
Sumner's  position  in  the  Senate  and  attitude  on 
the  treaty  question.  We  did  not  want  to  stir  him 
up  just  then.  We  despatched  a  note  of  severe 
censure  to  Motley  at  once,  and  ordered  him  to  ab 
stain  from  any  further  connection  with  that  ques 
tion.  We  thereupon  commenced  negotiations  with 
the  British  minister  at  Washington,  and  the  result 
was  the  joint  high  commission  and  the  Geneva 
award.  I  supposed  Mr.  Motley  would  be  manly 
enough  to  resign  after  that  snub,  but  he  kept  on 
till  he  was  removed.  Mr.  Sumner  promised  me  that 
he  would  vote  for  the  treaty.  But  when  it  was 
before  the  Senate  he  did  all  he  could  to  beat  it." 

General  Grant  talked  again  at  Cairo,  in  Egypt. 

"  Grant  then  referred  to  the  statement  published 
at  an  interview  with  him  in  Scotland,  and  said  the 
publication  had  some  omissions  and  errors.  He 
had  no  ill-will  towards  Mr.  Motley,  who,  like  other 
estimable  men,  made  mistakes,  and  Motley  made  a 
mistake  which  made  him  an  improper  person  to 
hold  office  under  me." 


A  Memoir. 


181 


"  It  is  proper  to  say  of  me  that  I  killed  Motley, 
or  that  I  made  war  upon  Sumner  for  not  support 
ing  the  annexation  of  San  Domingo.  But  if  I  dare 
to  answer  that  I  removed  Motley  from  the  highest 
considerations  of  duty  as  an  executive ;  if  I  pre 
sume  to  say  that  he  made  a  mistake  in  his  office 
which  made  him  no  longer  useful  to  the  country ; 
if  Fish  has  the  temerity  to  hint  that  Sumner's 
temper  was  so  unfortunate  that  business  relations 
with  him  became  impossible,  we  are  slandering  the 
dead." 

"  Nothing  but  Mortimer."  Those  who  knew  both 
men,  —  the  Ex-President  and  the  late  Senator, — 
would  agree,  I  do  not  doubt,  that  they  would  not  be 
the  most  promising  pair  of  human  beings  to  make 
harmonious  members  of  a  political  happy  family. 
"  Cedant  arma  togce"  the  life-long  sentiment  of 
Sumner,  in  conflict  with  "  Stand  fast  and  stand 
sure,"  the  well-known  device  of  the  clan  of  Grant, 
reminds  one  of  the  problem  of  an  irresistible  force 
in  collision  with  an  insuperable  resistance.  But 
the  President  says,  —  or  is  reported  as  saying,  — "  I 
may  be  blamed  for  my  opposition  to  Mr.  Sumner's 
tactics,  but  I  was  not  guided  so  much  by  reason  of 
his  personal  hatred  of  myself,  as  I  was  by  a  desire 
to  protect  our  national  interests  in  diplomatic  af 
fairs." 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


General 
Grant's 
alleged  con 
versation. 


Political 
incompati 
bilities. 


182 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


The  useless 
controversy 
(Mr.  Davis). 


Entered  into 
by  Mr.  Fish. 


The  death 
of  Lord 
Clarendon. 


"  It  would  be  useless,"  says  Mr.  Davis  in  his  letter 
to  the  Herald,  "  to  enter  into  a  controversy  whether 
the  President  may  or  may  not  have  been  influenced 
in  the  final  determination  of  the  moment  for  re 
questing  Motley's  resignation  by  the  feeling  caused 
by  Sumner's  personal  hostility  and  abuse  of  him 
self."  Unfortunately,  this  controversy  had  been 
entered  into,  and  the  idleness  of  suggesting  any 
relation  of  cause  and  effect  between  Mr.  Motley's 
dismissal  and  the  irritation  produced  in  the  Presi 
dent's  mind  by  the  rejection  of  the  San  Domingo 
treaty — which  rejection  was  mainly  due  to  Mot 
ley's  friend  Sumner's  opposition — strongly  insisted 
upon  in  a  letter  signed  by  the  Secretary  of  State. 
Too  strongly,  for  here  it  was  that  he  failed  to  re 
member  what  was  due  to  his  office,  to  himself,  and 
to  the  gentleman  of  whom  he  was  writing ;  if  in 
deed  it  was  the  Secretary's  own  hand  which  held 
the  pen,  and  not  another's. 

We  might  as  well  leave  out  the  wrath  of  Achilles 
from  the  Iliad,  as  the  anger  of  the  President  with 
Sumner  from  the  story  of  Motley's  dismissal.  The 
sad  recital  must  always  begin  with  Mrjviv  a«Se.  He 
was,  he  is  reported  as  saying,  "  very  angry  indeed  " 
with  Motley  because  he  had  fallen  in  line  with 
Sumner.  He  couples  them  together  in  his  conver 
sation  as  closely  as  Chang  and  Eng  were  coupled. 
The  death  of  Lord  Clarendon  would  have  covered 


A  Memoir. 


183 


up  the  coincidence  between  the  rejection  of  the  San 
Domingo  treaty  and  Mr.  Motley's  dismissal  very 
neatly,  but  for  the  inexorable  facts  about  its  date, 
as  revealed  by  the  London  Times.  It  betrays  itself 
as  an  afterthought,  and  its  failure  as  a  defence 
reminds  us  too  nearly  of  the  trial  in  which  Mr. 
Webster  said  suicide  is  confession. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  spurs  of  the  man  who 
had  so  lately  got  out  of  the  saddle  should  catch  in 
the  scholastic  robe  of  the  man  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate.  But  we  should  not  have  looked  for  any 
such  antagonism  between  the  Secretary  of  State  and 
the  Envoy  to  Great  Britain.  On  the  contrary,  they 
must  have  had  many  sympathies,  and  it  must  have 
cost  the  Secretary  pain,  as  he  said  it  did,  to  be 
forced  to  communicate  with  Mr.  Moran  instead  of 
with  Mr.  Motley. 

He  too  was  inquired  of  by  one  of  the  emissaries 
of  the  American  Unholy  Inquisition.  His  evidence 
is  thus  reported  :  — 

"  The  reason  for  Mr.  Motley's  removal  was  found 
in  considerations  of  state.  He  misrepresented  the 
government  on  the  Alabama  question,  especially  in 
the  two  speeches  made  by  him  before  his  arrival 
at  his  post." 

These  must  be  the  two  speeches  made  to  the 
American  and  the  Liverpool  chambers  of  commerce. 
If  there  is  anything  in  these  short  addresses  beyond 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


An  after 
thought 
betrays 
itself. 


Mr.  Fish's 
explanation 
of  Mr.  Mot 
ley's  re 
moval. 


Speeches  nt 
Liverpool. 


184 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


those  civil  generalities  which  the  occasion  called 
out,  I  have  failed  to  find  it.  If  it  was  in  these  that 
the  reason  of  Mr.  Motley's  removal  was  to  be  looked 
for,  it  is  singular  that  they  are  not  mentioned  in 
the  Secretary's  letter  to  Mr.  Moran,  or  by  Mr.  Davis 
in  his  letter  to  the  New  York  Herald.  They  must 
have  been  as  unsuccessful  as  myself  in  the  search 
after  anything  in  these  speeches  which  could  be 
construed  into  misinterpretation  of  the  Government 
on  the  Alabama  question. 

We  may  much  more  readily  accept  "  considera 
tions  of  state  "  as  a  reason  for  Mr.  Motley's  removal. 
Considerations  of  state  have  never  yet  failed  the  axe 
or  the  bowstring  when  a  reason  for  the  use  of  those 
convenient  implements  was  wanted,  and  they  are 
quite  equal  to  every  emergency  which  can  arise  in 
a  republican  autocracy.  But  for  the  very  reason 
that  a  minister  is  absolutely  in  the  power  of  his 
government,  the  manner  in  which  that  power  is 
used  is  always  open  to  the  scrutiny,  and,  if  it  has 
been  misused,  to  the  condemnation,  of  a  tribunal 
higher  than  itself ;  a  court  that  never  goes  out  of 
office,  and  which  no  personal  feelings,  no  lapse  of 
time,  can  silence. 

The  ostensible  grounds  on  which  Mr.  Motley  was 
recalled  are  plainly  insufficient  to  account  for  the 
action  of  the  Government.  If  it  was  in  great 
measure  a  manifestation  of  personal  feeling  on  the 


A  Memoir. 


185 


part  of  the  high  officials  by  whom  and  through 
whom  the  act  was  accomplished,  it  was  a  wrong 
which  can  never  be  repaired  and  never  sufficiently 
regretted. 

Stung  by  the  slanderous  report  of  an  anonymous 
eavesdropper  to  whom  the  government  of  the  day 
was  not  ashamed  to  listen,  he  had  quitted  Vienna, 
too  hastily,  it  may  be,  but  wounded,  indignant, 
feeling  that  he  had  been  unworthily  treated.  The 
sudden  recall  from  London,  on  no  pretext  whatever 
but  an  obsolete  and  overstated  incident  which  had 
ceased  to  have  any  importance,  was  under  these 
circumstances  a  deadly  blow.  It  fell  upon  "the 
new-healed  wound  of  malice,"  and  though  he  would 
not  own  it,  and  bore  up  against  it,  it  was  a  shock 
from  which  he  never  fully  recovered. 

"  I  hope  I  am  one  of  those,"  he  writes  to  me  from 
the  Hague,  in  1872,  "who  'fortune's  buffets  and 
rewards  can  take  with  equal  thanks.'  I  am  quite 
aware  that  I  have  had  far  more  than  I  deserve  of 
political  honors,  and  they  might  have  had  my  post 
as  a  voluntary  gift  on  my  part  had  they  remembered 
that  I  was  an  honorable  man,  and  not  treated  me 
as  a  detected  criminal  deserves  to  be  dealt  with." 

Mr.  Sumner  naturally  felt  very  deeply  what  he 
considered  the  great  wrong  done  to  his  friend.  He 
says :  — 

"  How  little  Mr.  Motley  merited  anything  but 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


Effect  of  his 
recall  upon 
Mr.  Motley. 


Mr.  Snm- 
ner'a  feeling 
on  the  sub 
ject. 


186 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


Mr.  Sutn- 
ner's  vindi 
cation  of  Mr. 
Motley. 


Testimony  of 
the  London 
press. 


respect  and  courtesy  from  the  Secretary  is  attested 
by  all  who  know  his  eminent  position  in  London, 
and  the  service  he  rendered  to  his  country.  Already 
the  London  press,  usually  slow  to  praise  Americans 
when  strenuous  for  their  country,  has  furnished  its 
voluntary  testimony.  The  Daily  News  of  August 
1.6,  1870,  spoke  of  the  insulted  minister  in  these 
terms :  — 

"  '  We  are  violating  no  confidence  in  saying  that 
all  the  hopes  of  Mr.  Motley's  official  residence  in 
England  have  been  amply  fulfilled,  and  that  the 
announcement  of  his  unexpected  and  unexplained 
recall  was  received  with  extreme  astonishment  and 
unfeigned  regret.  The  vacancy  he  leaves  cannot 
possibly  be  filled  by  a  minister  more  sensitive  to 
the  honor  of  his  government,  more  attentive  to  the 
interests  of  his  country,  and  more  capable  of  unit 
ing  the  most  vigorous  performance  of  his  public 
duties  with  the  high-bred  courtesy  and  conciliatory 
tact  and  temper  that  make  those  duties  easy  and 
successful.  Mr.  Motley's  successor  will  find  his 
mission  wonderfully  facilitated  by  the  firmness  and 
discretion  that  have  presided  over  the  conduct  of 
American  affairs  in  this  country  during  too  brief  a 
term,  too  suddenly  and  unaccountably  concluded.'  " 

No  man  can  escape  being  found  fault  with  when 
it  is  necessary  to  make  out  a  case  against  him.  A 
diplomatist  is  watched  by  the  sharpest  eyes  and 


A  Memoir. 


187 


commented  on  "by  the  most  merciless  tongues.  The 
best  and  wisest  has  his  defects,  and  sometimes  they 
would  seem  to  be  very  grave  ones  if  brought  up 
against  him  in  the  form  of  accusation.  Take  these 
two  portraits,  for  instance,  as  drawn  by  John  Quincy 
Adams.  The  first  is  that  of  Stratford  Canning,  af 
terwards  Lord  Stratford  de  Eedcliffe  :  — 

"  He  is  to  depart  to-morrow.  I  shall  probably 
see  him  no  more.  He  is  a  proud,  high-tempered 
Englishman,  of  good  but  not  extraordinary  parts ; 
stubborn  and  punctilious,  with  a  disposition  to  be 
overbearing,  which  I  have  often  been  compelled  to 
check  in  its  own  way.  He  is,  of  all  the  foreign 
ministers  with  whom  I  have  had  occasion  to  treat, 
the  man  who  has  most  severely  tried  my  temper. 
Yet  he  has  been  long  in  the  diplomatic  career, 
and  treated  with  governments  of  the  most  opposite 
characters.  He  has,  however,  a  great  respect  for 
his  word,  and  there  is  nothing  false  about  him. 
This  is  an  excellent  quality  for  a  negotiator.  Mr. 
Canning  is  a  man  of  forms,  studious  of  courtesy, 
and  tenacious  of  private  morals.  As  a  diplomatic 
man,  his  great  want  is  suppleness,  and  his  great 
virtue  is  sincerity." 

The  second  portrait  is  that  of  the  French  minis 
ter,  Hyde  de  Neuville  :  — 

"  No  foreign  minister  who  ever  resided  here  has 
been  so  universally  esteemed  and  beloved,  nor  have 


188 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


I  ever  been  in  political  relations  with  any  foreign 
statesman  of  whose  moral  qualities  I  have  formed 
so  good  an  opinion,  with  the  exception  of  Count 
Romanzoff.  He  has  not  sufficient  command  of  his 
temper,  is  quick,  irritable,  sometimes  punctilious, 
occasionally  indiscreet  in  his  discourse,  and  tainted 
with  Royalist  and  Bourbon  prejudices.  But  he  has 
strong  sentiments  of  honor,  justice,  truth,  and  even 
liberty.  His  flurries  of  temper  pass  off  as  quickly 
as  they  rise.  He  is  neither  profound  nor  sublime 
nor  brilliant ;  but  a  man  of  strong  and  good  feel 
ings,  with  the  experience  of  many  vicissitudes  of 
fortune,  a  good  but  common  understanding,  and 
good  intentions  biassed  by  party  feelings,  occasional 
interests,  and  personal  affections." 

It  means  very  little  to  say  that  a  man  has  some 
human  imperfections,  or  that  a  public  servant 
might  have  done  some  things  better.  But  when 
a  questionable  cause  is  to  be  justified  the  victim's 
excellences  are  looked  at  with  the  eyes  of  Brob- 
dingnag  and  his  failings  with  those  of  Liliput. 

The  recall  of  a  foreign  minister  for  alleged  mis 
conduct  in  office  is  a  kind  of  capital  punishment. 
It  is  the  nearest  approach  to  the  Sultan's  bowstring 
which  is  permitted  to  the  chief  magistrate  of  our 
Republic.  A  general  can  do  nothing  under  martial 
law  more  peremptory  than  a  President  can  do  with 


A  Memoir. 


189 


regard  to  the  public  functionary  whom  he  has  ap 
pointed  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate, 
but  whom  he  can  officially  degrade  and  disgrace  at 
his  own  pleasure  for  insufficient  cause  or  for  none  at 
all.  Like  the  centurion  of  Scripture,  he  says  Go, 
and  he  goeth.  The  Nation's  Eepresentative  is  less 
secure  in  his  tenure  of  office  than  his  own  servant, 
to  whom  he  must  give  warning  of  his  impending 
dismissal. 

"  A  breath  unmakes  him  as  a  breath  has  made." 

The  chief  magistrate's  responsibility  to  duty,  to 
the  fellow-citizen  at  his  mercy,  to  his  countrymen, 
to  mankind,  is  in  proportion  to  his  power.  His 
prime  minister,  the  agent  of  his  edicts,  should  feel 
bound  to  withstand  him  if  he  seeks  to  gratify  a 
personal  feeling  under  the  plea  of  public  policy, 
unless  the  minister,  like  the  slaves  of  the  harem, 
is  to  find  his  qualification  for  office  in  leaving  his 
manhood  behind  him. 

The  two  successive  administrations,  which  treated 
Mr.  Motley  in  a  manner  unworthy  of  their  position 
and  cruel,  if  not  fatal  to  him,  have  been  heard, 
directly  or  through  their  advocates.  I  have  at 
tempted  to  show  that  the  defence  set  up  for  their 
action  is  anything  but  satisfactory.  A  later  gen 
eration  will  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  evidence 
more  calmly  than  our  own.  It  is  not  for  a  friend, 


190 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXI. 
1869-1870. 


like  the  writer,  to  anticipate  its  decision,  but  un 
less  the  reasons  alleged  to  justify  his  treatment, 
and  which  have  so  much  the  air  of  afterthoughts, 
shall  seem  stronger  to  that  future  tribunal  than 
they  do  to  him,  the  verdict  will  be  that"  Mr.  Motley 
was  twice  sacrificed  to  personal  feelings  which 
should  never  have  been  cherished  by  the  heads 
of  the  government,  and  should  never  have  been 
countenanced  by  their  chief  advisers. 


A  Memoir. 


191 


XXII. 

Life  of  John  of  Barneveld.  —  Criticisms.  —  Groen 
van  Prinsterer.     (1874.) 

THE  full  title  of  Mr.  Motley's  next  and  last  work 
is  "  The  Life  and  Death  of  John  of  Barneveld,  Advo 
cate  of  Holland  ;  with  a  view  of  the  primary  causes 
and  movements  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War." 

In  point  of  fact  this  work  is  a  history  rather 
than  a  biography.  It  is  an  interlude,  a  pause  be 
tween  the  acts  which  were  to  fill  out  the  complete 
plan  of  the  "  Eighty  Years'  Tragedy,"  and  of  which 
the  last  act,  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  remains  unwrit 
ten.  The  Life  of  Barneveld  was  received  as  a 
fitting  and  worthy  continuation  of  the  series  of 
intellectual  labor  in  which  he  was  engaged.  I  will 
quote  but  two  general  expressions  of  approval  from 
the  two  best  known  British  critical  Reviews.  In 
connection  with  his  previous  works,  it  forms,  says 
the  London  Quarterly,  "  a  fine  and  continuous  story, 
of  which  the  writer  and  the  nation  celebrated  by 
him  have  equal  reason  to  be  proud;  a  narrative 
which  will  remain  a  prominent  ornament  of  Ameri 
can  genius,  while  it  has  permanently  enriched  Eng- 


192 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


lish  literature  on  this  as  well  as  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic." 

The  Edinburgh  Beview  speaks  no  less  warmly : 
"  We  can  hardly  give  too  much  appreciation  to  that 
subtile  alchemy  of  the  brain  which  has  enabled 
him  to  produce  out  of  dull,  crabbed,  and  often 
illegible  state  papers,  the  vivid,  graphic,  and  spark 
ling  narrative  which  he  has  given  to  the  world." 

In  a  literary  point  of  view,  M.  Groen  van  Prins- 
terer,  whose  elaborate  work  has  been  already  re 
ferred  to,  speaks  of  it  as  perhaps  the  most  classi 
cal  of  Motley's  productions,  but  it  is  upon  this 
work  that  the  force  of  his  own  and  other  Dutch 
criticisms  has  been  chiefly  expended. 

The  key  to  this  biographical  history  or  histori 
cal  biography  may  be  found  in  a  few  sentences 
from  its  opening  chapter. 

"  There  have  been  few  men  at  any  period  whose 
lives  have  been  more  closely  identical  than  his 
[Barneveld's]  with  a  national  history.  There  have 
been  few  great  men  in  any  history  whose  names 
have  become  less  familiar  to  the  world,  and  lived 
less  in  the  mouths  of  posterity.  Yet  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  if  William  the  Silent  was  the 
founder  of  the  independence  of  the  United  Prov 
inces,  Barneveld  was  the  founder  of  the  Common 
wealth  itself.  .... 

"  Had  that  country  of  which  he  was  so  long  the 


A  Memoir. 


•  193 


first  citizen  maintained  until  our  own  day  the 
same  proportional  position  among  the  empires  of 
Christendom  as  it  held  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  name  of  John  of  Barneveld  would  have  per 
haps  been  as  familiar  to  all  men  as  it  is  at  this 
moment  to  nearly  every  inhabitant  of  the  Nether 
lands.  Even  now  political  passion  is  almost  as 
ready  to  flame  forth,  either  in  ardent  affection  or 
enthusiastic  hatred,  as  if  two  centuries  and  a  half 
had  not  elapsed  since  his  death.  His  name  is  so 
typical  of  a  party,  a  polity,  and  a  faith,  so  indeli 
bly  associated  with  a  great  historical  cataclysm  as 
to  render  it  difficult  even  for  the  grave,  the  conscien 
tious,  the  learned,  the  patriotic  of  his  own  compa 
triots  to  speak  of  him  with  absolute  impartiality. 

"  A  foreigner  who  loves  and  admires  all  that  is 
great  and  noble  in  the  history  of  that  famous  re 
public,  and  can  have  no  hereditary  bias  as  to  its 
ecclesiastical  or  political  theories,  may  at  least  at 
tempt  the  task  with  comparative  coldness,  although 
conscious  of  inability  to  do  thorough  justice  to  a 
most  complex  subject." 

With  all  Mr.  Motley's  efforts  to  be  impartial,  to 
which  even  his  sternest  critics  bear  witness,  he 
could  not  help  becoming  a  partisan  of  the  cause 
which  for  him  was  that  of  religious  liberty  and 
progress,  as  against  the  accepted  formula  of  an  old 


SECT.  XXIL 


John  of 
Bameveld. 


Difficulty  of 
impartiality. 


Mr.  Motley 
a  partisan 
of  religious 
liberty  and 
progress. 


194 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


ecclesiastical  organization.  For  the  quarrel  which 
came  near  being  a  civil  war,  which  convulsed  the 
state,  and  cost  Barneveld  his  head,  had  its  origin 
in  a  difference  on  certain  points,  and  more  espe 
cially  on  a  single  point,  of  religious  doctrine. 

As  a  great  river  may  be  traced  back  until  its 
fountain-head  is  found  in  a  thread  of  water  stream 
ing  from  a  cleft  in  the  rocks,  so  a  great  national 
movement  may  sometimes  be  followed  until  its 
starting-point  is  found  in  the  cell  of  a  monk  or 
the  studies  of  a  pair  of  wrangling  professors. 

The  religious  quarrel  of  the  Dutchmen  in  the 
seventeenth  century  reminds  us  in  some  points  of 
the  strife  between  two  parties  in  our  own  New 
England,  sometimes  arraying  the  "  church  "  on  one 
side  against  the  "parish,"  or  the  general  body  of 
worshippers,  on  the  other.  The  portraits  of  Goma- 
rus,  the  great  orthpdox  champion,  and  Arminius, 
the  head  and  front  of  the  "  liberal  theology  "  of  his 
day,  as  given  in  the  little  old  quarto  of  Meursius, 
recall  two  ministerial  types  of  countenance  famil 
iar  to  those  who  remember  the  earlier  years  of  our 
century. 

Under  the  name  of  "  Remonstrants"  and  "  Contra- 
Eemonstrants," — Arminiaus  and  old-fashioned  Cal- 
vinists,  as  we  should  say,  —  the  adherents  of  the 
two  Leyden  Professors  disputed  the  right  to  the 
possession  of  the  churches,  and  the  claim  to  be 


A  Memoir. 


195 


considered  as  representing  the  national  religion. 
Of  the  seven  United  Provinces  two,  Holland  and 
Utrecht,  were  prevailingly  Arminian,  and  the  other 
five  Calvinistic.  Barneveld,  who,  under  the  title 
of  Advocate,  represented  the  Province  of  Holland, 
the  most  important  of  them  all,  claimed  for  each 
Province  a  right  to  determine  its  own  State  re 
ligion.  Maurice  the  Stadholder,  son  of  William 
the  Silent,  the  military  chief  of  the  Republic, 
claimed  the  right  for  the  States-General.  Cujus 
regio  ejus  religio  was  then  the  accepted  public  doc 
trine  of  Protestant  nations.  Thus  the  Provincial 
and  the  General  governments  were  brought  into 
conflict  by  their  creeds,  and  the  question  whether 
the  Republic  was  a  Confederation  or  a  Nation,  the 
same  question  which  has  been  practically  raised, 
and  for  the  time  at  least  settled,  in  our  own  Re 
public,  was  in  some  way  to  be  decided.  After 
various  disturbances  and  acts  of  violence  by  both 
parties,  Maurice,  representing  the  States-General, 
pronounced  for  the  Calvinists  or  Contra-Remon- 
strants,  and  took  possession  of  one  of  the  great 
Churches,  as  an  assertion  of  his  authority.  Barne 
veld,  representing  the  Arminian,  or  Remonstrant 
Provinces,  levied  a  body  of  mercenary  soldiers  in 
several  of  the  cities.  These  were  disbanded  by 
Maurice,  and  afterwards  by  an  act  of  the  States- 
General  Barneveld  was  apprehended,  imprisoned, 


SECT.  XXII. 

1874. 


Life  of  John 
of  Barne 
veld. 


Conflict  of 
authority. 


196 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXII 
1874. 


John  of 
Barneveld. 


Gro  tius. 


The  religious 
quarrel. 


and  executed,  after  an  examination  which  was  in  no 
proper  sense  a  trial.  Grotius,  who  was  on  the  Ar- 
minian  side  and  involved  in  the  inculpated  proceed 
ings,  was  also  arrested  and  imprisoned.  His  es 
cape,  by  a  stratagem  successfully  repeated  by  a 
slave  in  our  own  times,  may  challenge  comparison 
for  its  romantic  interest  with  any  chapter  of  fiction. 
How  his  wife  packed  him  into  the  chest  supposed 
to  contain  the  folios  of  the  great  oriental  scholar 
Erpenius,  how  the  soldiers  wondered  at  its  weight, 
and  questioned  whether  it  did  not  hold  an  Armin- 
ian,  how  the  servant-maid,  Elsje  van  Houwening, 
quickwitted  as  Morgiana  of  the  "Forty  Thieves," 
parried  their  questions  and  convoyed  her  master 
safely  to  the  friendly  place  of  refuge,  —  all  this 
must  be  read  in  the  vivid  narrative  of  the  author. 

The  questions  involved  were  political,  local,  per 
sonal,  and  above  all  religious.  Here  is  the  picture 
which  Motley  draws  of  the  religious  quarrel  as  it 
divided  the  people  :  — 

"  In  burghers'  mansions,  peasants'  cottages,  me 
chanics'  back-parlors,  on  board  herring-smacks, 
canal-boats,  and  East  Indiamen ;  in  shops,  count 
ing-rooms,  farm-yards,  guard-rooms,  alehouses  ;  on 
the  exchange,  in  the  tennis-court,  on  the  mall ; 
at  banquets,  at  burials,  christenings,  or  bridals ; 
wherever  and  whenever  human  creatures  met 
each  other,  there  was  ever  to  be  found  the  fierce 


A  Memoir. 


197 


wrangle  of  Kemonstrant  and  Contra-Remonstrant, 
the  hissing  of  red-hot  theological  rhetoric,  the 
pelting  of  hostile  texts.  The  blacksmith's  iron 
cooled  on  the  anvil,  the  tinker  dropped  a  kettle 
half  mended,  the  broker  left  a  bargain  unclinched, 
the  Scheveningen  fisherman  in  his  wooden  shoes 
forgot  the  cracks  in  his  pinkie,  while  each  paused 
to  hold  high  converse  with  friend  or  foe  on  fate, 
free-will,  or  absolute  foreknowledge ;  losing  himself 
in  wandering  mazes  whence  there  was  no  issue. 
Province  against  province,  city  against  city,  family 
against  family  ;  it  was  one  vast  scene  of  bickering, 
denunciation,  heart-burnings,  mutual  excommunica 
tion  and  hatred." 

The  religious  grounds  of  the  quarrel  which  set 
these  seventeenth-century  Dutchmen  to  cutting 
each  other's  throats  were  to  be  looked  for  in  the 
"  Five  Points  "  of  the  Arminians  as  arrayed  against 
the  "  Seven  Points "  of  the  Gomarites,  or  Contra- 
Eemonstrants.  The  most  important  of  the  differ 
ences  which  were  to  be  settled  by  fratricide  seem 
to  have  been  these :  — 

According  to  the  Five  Points,  "  God  has  from 
eternity  resolved  to  choose  to  eternal  life  those  who 
through  his  grace  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,"  etc.  Ac 
cording  to  the  Seven  Points,  "  God  in  his  election 
has  not  looked  at  the  belief  and  the  repentance  of 
the  elect,"  etc.  According  to  the  Five  Points,  all 


SECT.  XXII. 
1874. 


John  of 
Barneveld. 


Grounds  of 
the  religious 
quarrel 


The  Five 
Points. 


198 


John  Lotkrop  Motley. 


SBCT.  XXII. 
1874. 


John  of 
Baraeveld. 


The  Seven 
Points. 


Connection 
between  re 
ligion  and 
politics. 


good  deeds  must  be  ascribed  to  God's  grace  in 
Christ,  but  it  does  not  work  irresistibly.  The  lan 
guage  of  the  Seven  Points  implies  that  the  elect 
cannot  resist  God's  eternal  and  unchangeable  de 
sign  to  give  them  faith  and  steadfastness,  and  that 
they  can  never  wholly  and  for  always  lose  the  true 
faith.  The  language  of  the  Five  Points  is  unset 
tled  as  to  the  last  proposition,  but  it  was  afterwards 
maintained  by  the  Remonstrant  party  that  a  true 
believer  could,  through  his  own  fault,  fall  away 
from  God  and  lose  faith. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  these  religious  ques 
tions  had  an  immediate  connection  with  politics.  In 
dependently  of  the  conflict  of  jurisdiction,  in  which 
they  involved  the  parties  to  the  two  different  creeds, 
it  was  believed  or  pretended  that  the  new  doctrines 
of  the  Remonstrants  led  towards  Romanism,  and 
were  allied  with  designs  which  threatened  the  in 
dependence  of  the  country.  "There  are  two  fac 
tions  in  the  land,"  said  Maurice,  "  that  of  Orange 
and  that  of  Spain,  and  the  two  chiefs  of  the  Span 
ish  faction  are  those  political  and  priestly  Armin- 
ians,  Uytenbogaert  and  Oldenbarneveld." 

The  heads  of  the  two  religious  and  political 
parties  were  in  such  hereditary,  long-continued, 
and  intimate  relations  up  to  the  time  when  one 
signed  the  other's  death-warrant,  that  it  was  im 
possible  to  write  the  life  of  one  without  also  writ- 


A  Memoir. 


199 


ing  that  of  the  other.  For  his  biographer  John  of 
Barneveld  is  the  true  patriot,  the  martyr,  whose 
cause  was  that  of  religious  and  political  freedom. 
For  him  Maurice  is  the  ambitious  soldier  who 
heated  his  political  rival,  and  never  rested  until 
this  rival  was  brought  to  the  scaffold. 

The  questions  which  agitated  men's  minds  two 
centuries  and  a  half  ago  are  not  dead  yet  in  the 
country  where  they  produced  such  estrangement, 
violence,  and  wrong.  No  stranger  could  take  them 
up  without  encountering  hostile  criticism  from  one 
party  or  the  other.  It  may  be  and  has  been  con 
ceded  that  Mr.  Motley  writes  as  a  partisan,  —  a  par 
tisan  of  freedom  in  politics  and  religion,  as  he  un 
derstands  freedom.  This  secures  him  the  antagonism 
of  one  class  of  critics.  But  these  critics  are  them 
selves  partisans,  and  themselves  open  to  the  cross 
fire  of  their  antagonists.  M.  Groen  van  Prinsterer, 
"  the  learned  and  distinguished "  Editor  of  the 
Archives  et  Correspondance  of  the  Orange  and 
Nassau  family,  published  a  considerable  volume, 
before  referred  to,  in  which  many  of  Motley's  views 
are  strongly  controverted.  But  he  himself  is  far 
from  being  in  accord  with  "  that  eminent  scholar,"' 
M.  Bakhuyzen  van  den  Brink,  whose  name,  he 
says,  is  celebrated  enough  to  need  no  comment,  or 
with  M.  Fruin,  of  whose  impartiality  and  erudition 
he  himself  speaks  in  the  strongest  terms.  The 


SECT.  XXIL 
1874. 


John  of 
Barneveld. 


M.  Groen 
van  Prins- 
16161*8  work. 


200 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXIL 
1874. 


John  of 
Barneveld. 


M.  Groen 

ran  1'rins- 
terer's 
ground  of 
departure. 


ground  upon  which  he  is  attacked  is  thus  stated  in 
his  own  words  :  — 

"People  have  often  pretended  to  find  in  my 
writings  the  deplorable  influence  of  an  extreme 
Calvinism.  The  Puritans  of  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury  are  my  fellow-religionists.  I  am  a  sectarian 
and  not  an  historian." 

It  is  plain  enough  to  any  impartial  reader  that 
there  are  at  least  plausible  grounds  for  this  accusa 
tion  against  Mr.  Motley's  critic.  And  on  a  careful 
examination  of  the  formidable  volume,  it  becomes 
obvious  that  Mr.  Motley  has  presented  a  view  of  the 
events  and  the  personages  of  the  stormy  epoch 
with  which  he  is  dealing,  which  leaves  a  battle 
ground  yet  to  be  fought  over  by  those  who  come 
after  him.  The  dispute  is  not  and  cannot  be 
settled. 

The  end  of  all  religious  discussion  has  come 
when  one  of  the  parties  claims  that  it  is  thinking 
or  acting  under  immediate  Divine  guidance.  "  It  is 
God's  affair,  and  his  honor  is  touched,"  says  Wil 
liam  Lewis  to  Prince  Maurice.  Mr.  Motley's  critic  is 
not  less  confident  in  claiming  the  Almighty  as  on 
the  side  of  his  own  views.  Let  him  state  his  own 
ground  of  departure : — 

"To  show  the  difference,  let  me  rather  say  the 
contrast,  between  the  point  of  view  of  Mr.  Motley 
and  my  own,  between  the  Unitarian  and  the  Evan- 


A  Memoir. 


201 


gelical  belief.  "  I  am  issue  of  CALVIN,  child  of  the 
Awakening  (reveil).  Faithful  to  the  device  of  the 
Reformers :  Justification  by  faith,  alone,  and  the 
Word  of  God  endures  eternally.  I  consider  history 
from  the  point  of  view  of  Merle  d'Aubigne,  Chal 
mers,  Guizot.  I  desire  to  be  disciple  and  witness  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ." 

He  is  therefore  of  necessity  antagonistic  to  a 
writer  whom  he  describes  in  such  words  as  these :  — 

"  Mr.  Motley  is  liberal  and  rationalist. 

"  He  becomes,  in  attacking  the  principle  of  the 
Eeformation,  the  passionate  opponent  of  the  Puri 
tans  and  of  Maurice,  the  ardent  apologist  of  Barne- 
velt  and  the  Arminians. 

"  It  is  understood,  and  he  makes  no  mystery  of 
it,  that  he  inclines  towards  the  vague  and  unde 
cided  doctrine  of  the  Unitarians." 

What  M.  Groen's  idea  of  Unitarians  is  may  be 
gathered  from  the  statement  about  them  which  he 
gets  from  a  letter  of  De  Tocqueville. 

"  They  are  pure  deists ;  they  talk  about  the  Bible, 
because  they  do  not  wish  to  shock  too  severely 
public  opinion,  which  is  prevailingly  Christian. 
They  have  a  service  on  Sundays,  I  have  been  there. 
At  it  they  read  verses  from  Dryden  or  other  Eng 
lish  poets  on  the  existence  of  God  and  the  immor 
tality  of  the  soul.  They  deliver  a  discourse  on 
some  point  of  morality,  and  all  is  said." 


SECT.  XXII. 
1874. 


John  of 
Barneveld. 


The  Calvin- 

ist. 


The  Unita 
rian,  accord- 
to  his 
opponent. 


202 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


In  point  of  fact  the  wave  of  protest  which 
stormed  the  dikes  of  Dutch  orthodoxy  in  the  sev 
enteenth  century  stole  gently  through  the  bars  of 
New  England  puritanism  in  the  eighteenth. 

"  Though  the  large  number,"  says  Mr.  Bancroft, 
"  still  acknowledged  the  fixedness  of  the  divine  de 
crees,  and  the  resistless  certainty  from  all  eternity 
of  election  and  of  reprobation,  there  were  not  want 
ing,  even  among  the  clergy,  some  who  had  modi 
fied  the  sternness  of  the  ancient  doctrine  by 
making  the  self-direction  of  the  active  powers  of 
man  with  freedom  of  inquiry  and  private  judgment 
the  central  idea  of  a  protest  against  Calvinism." 

Protestantism,  cut  loose  from  an  infallible  church, 
and  drifting  with  currents  it  cannot  resist,  wakes 
up  once  or  oftener  in  every  century,  to  find  itself 
in  a  new  locality.  Then  it  rubs  its  eyes  and  won 
ders  whether  it  has  found  its  harbor  or  only  lost 
its  anchor.  There  is  no  end  to  its  disputes,  for  it 
has  nothing  but  a  fallible  vote  as  authority  for  its 
oracles,  and  these  appeal  only  to  fallible  inter 
preters. 

It  is  as  hard  to  contend  in  argument  against  "the 
oligarchy  of  heaven,"  as  Motley  calls  the  Calvin- 
istic  party,  as  it  was  formerly  to  strive  with  them 
in  arms. 

To  this  "  aristocracy  of  God's  elect "  belonged  the 
party  which  framed  the  declaration  of  the  Synod 


A  Memoir. 


203 


of  Dort ;  the  party  which  under  the  forms  of  jus 
tice  shed  the  blood  of  the  great  statesman  who  had 
served  his  country  so  long  and  so  well.  To  this 
chosen  body  belonged  the  late  venerable  and  truly 
excellent  as  well  as  learned  M.  Groen  van  Prin- 
sterer,  and  he  exercised  the  usual  right  of  exam 
ining  in  the  light  of  his  privileged  position  the 
views  of  a  "liberal"  and  "rationalist"  writer  who 
goes  to  meeting  on  Sunday  to  hear  verses  from 
Dryden.  This  does  not  diminish  his  claim  for  a 
fair  reading  of  the  "intimate  correspondence," 
which  he  considers  Mr.  Motley  has  not  duly  taken 
into  account,  and  of  the  other  letters  to  be  found 
printed  in  his  somewhat  disjointed  and  fragment 
ary  volume. 

This  "  intimate  correspondence  "  shows  Maurice 
the  Stadholder  indifferent  and  lax  in  internal 
administration  and  as  being  constantly  advised 
and  urged  by  his  relative  Count  William  of  Nassau. 
This  need  of  constant  urging  extends  to  religious 
as  well  as  other  matters,  and  is  inconsistent  with 
M.  Groen  van  Prinsterer's  assertion  that  the  ques 
tion  was  for  Maurice  above  all  religious,  and  for 
Barneveld  above  all  political.  Whether  its  nega 
tive  evidence  can  be  considered  as  neutralizing 
that  which  is  adduced  by  Mr.  Motley  to  show  the 
Stadholder's  hatred  of  the  Advocate  may  be  left 
to  the  reader  who"  has  just  risen  from  the  account 


SECT.  XXIL 
1874. 


John  of 
Barneveld. 


The  "  inti 
mate  corre 
spondence." 


204 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


of  the  mock  trial  and  the  swift  execution  of  the 
great  and  venerable  statesman.  The  formal  entry 
on  the  Record  upon  the  day  of  his  "judicial  mur 
der  "  is  singularly  solemn  and  impressive :  — 

"  Monday,  13th  May,  1619.  To-day  was  exe 
cuted  with  the  sword  here  in  the  Hague,  on  a  scaf 
fold  thereto  erected  in  the  Binnenhof  before  the 
steps  of  the  great  hall,  Mr.  John  of  Barneveld,  in 
his  life  Knight,  Lord  of  Berkel,  Rodenrys,  etc., 
Advocate  of  Holland  and  West  Friesland,  for  rea 
sons  expressed  in  the  sentence  and  otherwise,  with 
confiscation  of  his  property,  after  he  had  served  the 
state  thirty-three  years  two  months  and  five  days, 
since  8th  March,  1586 ;  a  man  of  great  activity, 
business,  memory,  and  wisdom  —  yea,  extraordinary 
in  every  respect.  He  that  stands  let  him  see  that 
he  does  not  fall" 

Maurice  gave  an  account  of  the  execution  of 
Barneveld  to  Count  William  Lewis  on  the  same 
day  in  a  note  "  painfully  brief  and  dry." 

Most  authors  write  their  own  biography  con 
sciously  or  unconsciously.  We  have  seen  Mr.  Mot 
ley  portraying  much  of  himself,  his  course  of  life  and 
his  future,  as  he  would  have  had  it,  in  his  first  story. 
In  this,  his  last  work,  it  is  impossible  not  to  read 
much  of  his  own  external  and  internal  personal 
history  told  under  other  names  and  with  different 


A  Memoir. 


205 


accessories.  The  parallelism  often  accidentally  or 
intentionally  passes  into  divergence.  He  would 
not  have  had  it  too  close  if  he  could,  but  there  are 
various  passages  in  which  it  is.  plain  enough  that  he 
is  telling  his  own  story. 

Mr.  Motley  was  a  diplomatist,  and  he  writes  of 
other  diplomatists,  and  one  in  particular,  with  most 
significant  detail.  It  need  not  be  supposed  that  he 
intends  the  "arch  intriguer"  Aerssens  to  stand 
for  himself,  or  that  he  would  have  endured  being 
thought  to  identify  himself  with  the  man  of  whose 
"almost  devilish  acts"  he  speaks  so  freely.  But 
the  sagacious  reader  —  and  he  need  not  be  very 
sharp-sighted  —  will  very  certainly  see  something 
more  than  a  mere  historical  significance  in  some  of 
the  passages  which  I  shall  cite  for  him  to  reflect  upon. 
Mr.  Motley's  standard  of  an  ambassador's  accomplish 
ments  may  be  judged  from  the  following  passage. 

"  That  those  ministers  [those  of  the  Republic] 
were  second  to  the  representatives  of  no  other  Eu 
ropean  state  in  capacity  and  accomplishment  was  a 
fact  well  known  to  all  who  had  dealings  with  them, 
for  the  states  required  in  their  diplomatic  represent 
atives  knowledge  of  history  and  international  law, 
modern  languages,  and  the  classics,  as  well  as  fa 
miliarity  with  political  customs  and  social  courte 
sies  ;  the  breeding  of  gentlemen,  in  short;  and  the 
accomplishments  of  scholars." 


SECT.  XXIL 
187*. 


John  oif 
Barneveld. 


Self-portrait- 


Accomplish 
ments  of 
Dutch 

Ministers. 


206 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


The  story  of  the  troubles  of  Aerssens,  the  Am 
bassador  of  the  United  Provinces  at  Paris,  must  be 
given  at  some  length,  and  will  repay  careful  reading. 

"  Francis  Aerssens  ....  continued  to  be  the 
Dutch  ambassador  after  the  murder  of  Henry  IV. 
....  He  was  beyond  doubt  one  of  the  ablest  diplo 
matists  in  Europe.  Versed  in  many  languages,  a 
classical  student,  familiar  with  history  and  inter 
national  law,  a  man  of  the  world  and  familiar  with 
its  usages,  accustomed  to  associate  with  dignity  and 
tact  on  friendliest  terms  with  sovereigns,  eminent 
statesmen,  and  men  of  letters ;  endowed  with  a  facile 
tongue,  a  fluent  pen,  and  an  eye  and  ear  of  singu 
lar  acuteness  and  delicacy ;  distinguished  for  un 
flagging  industry  and  singular  aptitude  for  secret 
and  intricate  affairs ;  —  he  had  by  the  exercise  of 
these  various  qualities  during  a  period  of  nearly 
twenty  years  at  the  court  of  Henry  the  Great  been 
able  to  render  inestimable  services  to  the  Eepublic 
which  he  represented. 

"  He  had  enjoyed  the  intimacy  and  even  the  con 
fidence  of  Henry  IV,  so  far  as  any  man  could  be 
said  to  possess  that  monarch's  confidence,  and  his 
friendly  relations  and  familiar  access  to  the  king 
gave  him  political  advantages  superior  to  those  of 
any  of  his  colleagues  at  the  same  court. 

"  Acting  entirely  and  faithfully  according  to  the 


A  Memoir. 


207 


instructions  of  the  Advocate  of  Holland,  he  always 
gratefully  and  copiously  acknowledged  the  privilege 
of  being  guided  and  sustained  in  the  difficult  paths 
he  had  to  traverse  by  so  powerful  and  active  an 
intellect.  I  have  seldom  alluded  in  terms  to  the 
instructions  and  despatches  of  the  chief,  but  every 
position,  negotiation,  and  opinion  of  the  envoy  — 
and  the  reader  has  seen  many  of  them  —  is  per 
vaded  by  their  spirit 

"  It  had  become  a  question  whether  he  was  to  re 
main  at  his  post  or  return.  It  was  doubtful  whether 
he  wished  to  be  relieved  of  his  embassy  or  not.  The 
States  of  HoEand  voted  '  to  leave  it  to  his  candid 
opinion  if  in  his  free  conscience  he  thinks  he  can 
serve  the  public  any  longer.  If  yes,  he  may  keep 
his  office  one  year  more.  If  no,  he  may  take  leave 
and  come  home.' 

"Surely  the  States,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Advocate,  had  thus  acted  with  consummate  courtesy 
towards  a  diplomatist  whose  position,  from  no  ap 
parent  fault  of  his  own,  but  by  the  force  of  circum 
stances  —  and  rather  to  his  credit  than  otherwise 
—  was  gravely  compromised." 

The  Queen,  Mary  de'  Medici,  had  a  talk  with 
him,  got  angry,  "  became  very  red  in  the  face,"  and 
wanted  to  be  rid  of  him. 

"  Nor  was  the  Envoy  at  first  desirous  of  remain 
ing.  ....  Nevertheless,  he  yielded  reluctantly  to 


208 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


Barneveld's  request  that  he  should,  for  the  time  at 
least,  remain  at  his  post.  Later  on,  as  the  intrigues 
against  him  began  to  unfold  themselves,  and  his 
faithful  services  were  made  use  of  at  home  to 
blacken  his  character  and  procure  his  removal,  he 
refused  to  resign,  as  to  do  so  would  be  to  play  into 
the  hands  of  his  enemies,  and,  by  inference  at  least, 
to  accuse  himself  of  infidelity  to  his  trust."  .... 

"  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  Ambassador  was  galled 
to  the  quick  by  the  outrage  which  those  concerned 
in  the  government  were  seeking  to  put  upon  him. 
How  could  an  honest  man  fail  to  be  overwhelmed 
with  rage  and  anguish  at  being  dishonored  before 
the  world  by  his  masters  for  scrupulously  doing  his 
duty,  and  for  maintaining  the  rights  and  dignity  of 
his  own  country  ?  He  knew  that  the  charges  were 
but  pretexts,  that  the  motives  of  his  enemies  were 
as  base  as  the  intrigues  themselves,  but  he  also 
knew  that  the  world  usually  sides  with  the  govern 
ment  against  the  individual,  and  that  a  man's  repu 
tation  is  rarely  strong  enough  to  maintain  itself 
unsullied  in  a  foreign  land  when  his  own  govern 
ment  stretches  forth  its  hand,  not  to  shield,  but  to 
stab  him 

" '  I  know,'  he  said,  '  that  this  plot  has  been 
woven  partly  in  Holland  and  partly  here  by  good 
correspondence,  in  order  to  drive  me  from  my  post 
with  disreputation 


A  Memoir. 


209 


" '  But  as  I  have  discovered  this  accurately,  I  have 
resolved  to  offer  to  my  masters  the  continuance  of 
my  very  humble  service  for  such  time  and  under 
such  conditions  as  they  may  think  good  to  pre 
scribe.  I  prefer  forcing  my  natural  and  private 
inclinations  to  giving  an  opportunity  for  the  min 
isters  of  this  kingdom  to  discredit  us,  and  to  my 
enemies  to  succeed  in  injuring  me,  and  by  fraud 

and  malice  to  force  me  from  my  post I  am 

truly  sorry,  being  ready  to  retire,  wishing  to  have 
an  honorable  testimony  in  recompense  of  my  labors, 
that  one  is  in  such  hurry  to  take  advantage  of  my 
falL  ....  What  envoy  will  ever  dare  to  speak 
with  vigor  if  he  is  not  sustained  by  the  government 
at  home  ?  .  .  .  .  My  enemies  have  misrepresented 
my  actions,  and  my  language  as  passionate,  exag 
gerated,  mischievous,  but  I  have  no  passion  except 
for  the  service  of  my  superiors ' 

"  Barneveld,  from  well-considered  motives  of  pub 
lic  policy,  was  favoring  his  honorable  recall.  But 
he  allowed  a  decorous  interval  of  more  than  three 
years  to  elapse  in  which  to  terminate  his  affairs, 
and  to  take  a  deliberate  departure  from  that  French 
embassy  to  which  the  Advocate  had  originally  pro 
moted  him,  and  in  which  there  had  been  so  many 
years  of  mutual  benefit  and  confidence  between  the 
two  statesmen.  He  used  no  underhand  means. 
He  did  not  abuse  the  power  of  the  States-General 


SECT.  XXIL 
1874. 


John  of 
Barneveld. 


Aerssens 
intends  to 
remain. 


Respectfully 
treated  by 
his  govern 
ment. 


210 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


which  he  wielded  to  cast  him  suddenly  and  brutally 
from  the  distinguished  post  which  he  occupied,  and 
so  to  attempt  to  dishonor  him  before  the  world. 
Nothing  could  be  more  respectful  and  conciliatory 
than  the  attitude  of  the  government  from  first  to 
last  towards  this  distinguished  functionary.  The 
Eepublic  respected  itself  too  much  to  deal  with 
honorable  agents  whose  services  it  felt  obliged  to 
dispense  with  as  with  vulgar  malefactors  who  had 

been  detected  in  crime 

"This  work  aims  at  being  a  political  study.  I 
would  attempt  to  exemplify  the  influence  of  indi 
vidual  humors  and  passions  —  some  of  them  among 
the  highest  and  others  certainly  the  basest  that 
agitate  humanity  —  upon  the  march  of  great  events, 
upon  general  historical  results  at  certain  epochs,  and 
upon  the  destiny  of  eminent  personages." 
Here  are  two  suggestive  portraits  :  — 
"  The  Advocate,  while  acting  only  in  the  name 
of  a  slender  confederacy,  was  in  truth,  so  long  as 
he  held  his  place,  the  prime  minister  of  European 
Protestantism.  There  was  none  other  to  rival  him, 
few  to  comprehend  him,  fewer  still  to  sustain  him. 
As  Prince  Maurice  was  at  that  time  the  great  sol 
dier  of  Protestantism  without  clearly  scanning  the 
grandeur  of  the  field  in  which  he  was  a  chief  actor, 
or  foreseeing  the  vastness  of  its  future,  so  the  Ad 
vocate  was  its  statesman  and  its  prophet.  Could 


A  Memoir. 


211 


the  two  have  worked  together  as  harmoniously  as 
they  had  done  at  an  earlier  day,  it  would  have  been 
a  blessing  for  the  common  weal  of  Europe.  But, 
alas !  the  evil  genius  of  jealousy,  which  so  often 
forbids  cordial  relations  between  soldier  and  states 
man,  already  stood  shrouded  in  the  distance,  darkly 
menacing  the  strenuous  patriot,  who  was  wearing 
his  life  out  in  exertions  for  what  he  deemed  the 

true  cause  of  progress  and  humanity 

"  All  history  shows  that  the  brilliant  soldier  of  a 
republic  is  apt  to  have  the  advantage,  in  a  struggle 
for  popular  affection  and  popular  applause,  over  the 

statesman,  however  consummate The  great 

battles  and  sieges  of  the  Prince  had  been  on  a 
world's  theatre,  had  enchained  the  attention  of 
Christendom,  and  on  their  issue  had  frequently 
depended,  or  seemed  to  depend,  the  very  existence 
of  the  nation.  The  labors  of  the  statesman,  on  the 
contrary,  had  been  comparatively  secret.  His  noble 
orations  and  arguments  had  been  spoken  with  closed 
doors  to  assemblies  of  colleagues  —  rather  envoys 
than  senators — .  .  .  .  while  his  vast  labors  in  direct 
ing  both  the  internal  administration  and  especially 
the  foreign  affairs  of  the  commonwealth  had  been 
by  their  very  nature  as  secret  as  they  were  perpet 
ual  and  enormous." 

The  reader  of  the  life  of  Barneveld  must  judge 


SECT.  XXIL 
1874. 


The  soldier 
and  the 
statesman. 


212 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


1874. 


John  of 

Harueveld. 


for  himself  whether  in  these  and  similar  passages 
the  historian  was  thinking  solely  of  Maurice,  the 
great  military  leader,  of  Barneveld,  the  great  states 
man,  and  of  Aerssens,  the  recalled  ambassador.  He 
will  certainly  find  that  there  were  "burning  ques 
tions"  for  ministers -to  handle  then  as  now,  and 
recognize  in  "  that  visible  atmosphere  of  power  the 
poison  of  which  it  is  so  difficult  to  resist "  a  respira 
tory  medium  as  well  known  to  the  nineteenth  as 
to  the  seventeenth  century. 


A  Memoir. 


213 


XXIII. 

Death  of  Mrs.  Motley.  —  Last  Visit  to  America.  —  Ill 
ness  and  Death.  —  Lady  Harcourt's  Communica 
tion.  (1874-1877.') 

ON  the  last  day  of  1874  the  beloved  wife,  whose 
health  had  for  some  years  been  failing,  was  taken 
from  him  by  death.  She  had  been  the  pride  of  his 
happier  years,  the  stay  and  solace  of  those  which 
had  so  tried  his  sensitive  spirit.  The  blow  found 
him  already  weakened  by  mental  suffering  and 
bodily  infirmity,  and  he  never  recovered  from  it. 
Mr.  Motley's  last  visit  to  America  was  in  the  sum 
mer  and  autumn  of  1875.  During  several  weeks 
which  he  passed  at  Nahant,  a  seaside  resort  near 
Boston,  I  saw  him  almost  daily.  He  walked  feebly 
and  with  some  little  difficulty,  and  complained  of 
a  feeling  of  great  weight  in  the  right  arm,  which 
made  writing  laborious.  His  handwriting  had  not 
betrayed  any  very  obvious  change,  so  far  as  I  had 
noticed  in  his  letters.  His  features  and  speech 
were  without  any  paralytic  character.  His  mind 
was  clear  except  when,  as  on  one  or  two  occa 
sions,  he  complained  of  some  confused  feeling,  and 


SECT.  XXIIL 
1874-1877. 


Death  of 
Mrs.  Motley. 


Mr.  Motley 
visits  Amer 
ica. 


214 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


walked  a  few  minutes  in  the  open  air  to  compose 
himself.  His  thoughts  were  always  tending  to  re 
vert  to  the  almost  worshipped  companion  from 
whom  death  had  parted  him  a  few  months  before. 
Yet  he  could  often  be  led  away  to  other  topics,  and 
in  talking  of  them  could  be  betrayed  into  momentary 
cheerfulness  of  manner.  His  long-enduring  and  all- 
pervading  grief  was  not  more  a  tribute  to  the  virtues 
and  graces  of  her  whom  he  mourned  than  an  evi 
dence  of  the  deeply  affectionate  nature  which  in 
other  relations  endeared  him  to  so  many  whose 
friendship  was  a  title  to  love  and  honor. 

I  have  now  the  privilege  of  once  more  recurring 
to  the  narrative  of  Mr.  Motley's  daughter,  Lady 
Harcourt. 

"  The  harassing  work  and  mental  distress  of  this 
time  [after  the  recall  from  England]  acting  on  an 
acutely  nervous  organization,  began  the  process  of 
undermining  his  constitution,  of  which  we  were 
so  soon  to  see  the  results.  It  was  not  the  least 
courageous  act  of  his  life,  that,  smarting  under  a 
fresh  wound,  tired  and  unhappy,  he  set  his  face 
immediately  towards  the  accomplishment  of  fresh 
literary  labor.  After  my  sister's  marriage  in  Janu 
ary  he  went  to  the  Hague  to  begin  his  researches 
in  the  archives  for  John  of  Barnevelt.  The  Queen 
of  the  Netherlands  had  made  ready  a  house  for  us, 


A  Memoir. 


215 


and  personally  superintended  every  preparation  for 
his  reception.  "We  remained  there  until  the  spring, 
and  then  removed  to  a  house  more  immediately  in 
the  town,  a  charming  old-fashioned  mansion,  once 
lived  in  by  John  de  Witt,  where  he  had  a  large 
library  and  every  domestic  comfort  during  the  year 
of  his  sojourn.  The  incessant  literary  labor  in  an 
enervating  climate  with  enfeebled  health  may  have 
prepared  the  way  for  the  first  break  in  his  consti 
tution,  which  was  to  show  itself  soon  after.  There 
were  many  compensations  in  the  life  about  him. 
He  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  constant  companion 
ship  with  one  of  the  warmest  hearts  and  finest  in 
tellects  which  I  have  ever  known  in  a  woman  — 
the  dme  d'dlite  which  has  passed  beyond  this  earth. 
The  gracious  sentiment  with  which-  the  Queen 
sought  to  express  her  sense  of  what  Holland  owed 
him  would  have  been  deeply  felt  even  had  her  per 
sonal  friendship  been  less  dear  to  us  all.  From  the 
King,  the  society  of  the  Hague,  and  the  diplomatic 
circle  we  had  many  marks  of  kindness.  Once  or 
twice  I  made  short  journeys  with  him  for  change 
of  air  to  Amsterdam,  to  look  for  the  portraits  of 
John  of  Barneveld  and  his  wife ;  to  Bohemia, 
where,  with  the  lingering  hope  of  occupying  him 
self  with  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  he  looked  care 
fully  at  the  scene  of  Wallenstein's  death  near 
Prague,  and  later  to  Varzin  in  Pomerania  for  a 


ECT.  XXIII. 

1874-1877. 


Lady 

Harcourt's 

account. 


The  Qneen 
of  the  Neth 
erlands. 


Journeys. 


216 


John  Lothrop  Motley, 


SECT.  XXIII 

1874. 


Lady 
Harcourt's 

account. 


Illness. 


Sir  William 
Gull  sends 
him  to 
Cannes. 


His  grief. 


week  with  Prince  Bismarck,  after  the  great  events 
of  the  Franco-German  war.  In  the  autumn  of 
1872  we  moved  to  England,  partly  because  it  was 
evident  that  his  health  and  my  mother's  required  a 
change ;  partly  for  private  reasons  to  be  near  my 
sister  and  her  children.  The  day  after  our  arrival 
at  Bournemouth  occurred  the  rupture  of  a  vessel  on 
the  lungs,  without  any  apparently  sufficient  cause. 
He  recovered  enough  to  revise  and  complete  his 
manuscript,  and  we  thought  him  better,  when  at 
the  end  of  July,  in  London,  he  was  struck  down 
by  the  first  attack  of  the  head,  which  robbed  him 
of  all  after  power  of  work,  although  the  intellect 
remained  untouched.  Sir  William  Gull  sent  him 
to  Cannes  for  the  winter,  where  he  was  seized  with 
a  violent  internal  inflammation,  in  which  I  suppose 
there  was  again  the  indication  of  the  lesion  of 
blood-vessels.  I  am  nearing  the  shadow  now  — 
the  time  of  which  I  can  hardly  bear  to  write.  You 
know  the  terrible  sorrow  which  crushed  him  on 
the  last  day  of  1874,  —  the  grief  which  broke  his 
heart  and  from  which  he  never  rallied.  From  that 
day  it  seems  to  me  that  his  life  may  be  summed 
up  in  the  two  words,  —  patient  waiting.  Never  for 
one  hour  did  her  spirit  leave  him,  and  he  strove  to 
follow  its  leading  for  the  short  and  evil  days  left 
and  the  hope  of  the  life  beyond.  I  think  I  have 
never  watched  quietly  and  reverently  the  traces  of 


A  Memoir. 


217 


one  personal  character  remaining  so  strongly  im 
pressed  on  another  nature.  With  her  self-depre 
ciation  and  unselfishness  she  would  have  been  the 
last  to  believe  how  much  of  him  was  in  her  very 
existence ;  nor  could  we  have  realized  it  until  the 
parting  came.  Henceforward,  with  the  mind  still 
there,  but  with  the  machinery  necessary  to  set  it 
in  motion  disturbed  and  shattered,  he  could  but  try 
to  create  small  occupations  with  which  to  fill  the 
hours  of  a  life  which  was  only  valued  for  his  chil 
dren's  sake.  Kind  and  loving  friends  in  England 
and  America  soothed  the  passage,  and  our  gratitude 
for  so  many  gracious  acts  is  deep  and  true.  His 
love  for  children,  always  a  strong  feeling,  was  grati 
fied  by  the  constant  presence  of  my  sister's  babies, 
the  eldest  a  little  girl  who  bore  my  mother's  name, 
and  had  been  her  idol,  being  the  companion  of 
many  hours  and  his  best  comforter.  At  the  end 
the  blow  came  swiftly  and  suddenly,  as  he  would 
have  wished  it.  It  was  a  terrible  -shock  to  us  who 
had  vainly  hoped  to  keep  him  a  few  years  longer, 
but  at  least  he  was  spared  what  he  had  dreaded 
with  a  great  dread,  a  gradual  failure  of  mental  or 
bodily  power.  The  mind  was  never  clouded,  the 
affections  never  weakened,  and  after  a  few  hours  of 
unconscious  physical  struggle  he  lay  at  rest,  his 
face  beautiful  and  calm,  without  a  trace  of  suffer 
ing  or  illness.  Once  or  twice  he  said,  '  It  has 


SECT.  XXIIL 
1874-1877. 


218 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXIII 

1874-1877. 


The  last 
hour. 


eome,  it  has  come,'  and  there  were  a  few  broken 
words  before  consciousness  fled,  but  there  was  little 
time  for  messages  or  leave-taking.  By  a  strange 
coincidence  his  life  ended  near  the  town  of  Dor 
chester,  in  the  mother  country,  as  if  the  last  hour 
brought  with  it  a  reminiscence  of  his  birthplace, 
and  of  his  own  dearly  loved  mother.  By  his  own 
wish  only  the  dates  of  his  birth  and  death  appear 
upon  his  gravestone,  with  the  text  chosen  by  him 
self,  '  In  God  is  light,  and  in  him  is  no  darkness 
at  all."' 


A  Memoir. 


219 


XXIV. 

Conclusion.  —  His  Character.  - 
Reward. 


His  Labors.  —  His 


IN  closing  this  restricted  and  imperfect  record  of 
a  life  which  merits,  and  in  due  time  will,  I  trust, 
receive  an  ampler  tribute,  I  cannot  refrain  from 
adding  a  few  thoughts  which  naturally  suggest 
themselves,  and  some  of  which  may  seem  quite 
unnecessaiy  to  the  reader  who  has  followed  the 
story  of  the  historian  and  diplomatist's  brilliant 
and  eventful  career. 

Mr.  Motley  came  of  a  parentage  which  promised 
the  gifts  of  mind  and  body  very  generally  to  be 
accounted  for,  in  a  measure  at  least,  wherever  we 
find  them,  by  the  blood  of  one  or  both  of  the  par 
ents.  They  gave  him  special  attractions  and  laid 
him  open  to  not  a  few  temptations.  Too  many 
young  men  born  to  shine  in  social  life,  to  sparkle, 
it  may  be,  in  conversation,  perhaps  in  the  lighter 
walks  of  literature,  become  agreeable  idlers,  self- 
indulgent,  frivolous,  incapable  of  large  designs  or 
sustained  effort,  lose  every  aspiration  and  forget 
every  ideal.  Our  gilded  youth  want  such  exam- 


SECT.  XXIV. 
18U-1877. 


His  endow 
ments. 


220 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXIV. 
1814-1877. 


His  tempera 

ment. 


pies  as  this  of  Motley,  not  a  solitary,  but  a  con 
spicuous  one,  to  teach  them  how  much  better  is 
the  restlessness  of  a  noble  ambition  than  the  nar 
cotized  stupor  of  club-life  or  the  vapid  amusement 
of  dressed-up  intercourse,  which  too  often  requires 
a  questionable  flavor  of  forbidden  license  to  render 
it  endurable  to  persons  of  vivacious  character  and 
temperament. 

It  would  seem,  difficult  for  a  man  so  flattered 
from  his  earliest  days  to  be  modest  in  his  self-esti 
mate  ;  but  Motley  was  never  satisfied  with  himself. 
He  was  impulsive,  and  was  occasionally,  I  have 
heard  it  said,  over  excited,  when  his  prejudices  were 
roughly  handled.  In  all  that  related  to  the  ques 
tions  involved  in  our  civil  war,  he  was,  no  doubt, 
very  sensitive.  He  had  heard  so  much  that  exas 
perated  him  in  the  foreign  society  which  he  had 
expected  to  be  in  full  sympathy  with  the  cause 
of  liberty  as  against  slavery,  that  he  might  be 
excused  if  he  showed  impatience  when  he  met  with 
similar  sentiments  among  his  own  countrymen. 
He  felt  that  he  had  been  cruelly  treated  by  his 
own  government,  and  no  one  who  conceives  him 
self  to  have  been  wronged  and  insulted  must  be 
expected  to  reason  in  naked  syllogisms  on  the 
propriety  of  the  liberties  which  have  been  taken 
with  his  name  and  standing.  But  with  all  his 
quickness  of  feeling  his  manners  were  easy  and 


A  Memoir. 


221 


courteous,  simply  because  his  nature  was  warm  and 
kindly,  and  with  all  his  natural  fastidiousness  there 
was  nothing  of  the  coxcomb  about  him. 

He  must  have  had  enemies,  as  all  men  of  strik 
ing  individuality  are  sure  to  have ;  his  presence 
cast  more  uncouth  patriots  into  the  shade;  his 
learning  was  a  reproach  to  the  ignorant,  his  fame 
was  too  bright  a  distinction ;  his  high-bred  air  and 
refinement,  which  he  could  not  help,  would  hardly 
commend  him  to  the  average  citizen  in  an  order  of 
things  in  which  mediocrity  is  at  a  premium,  and 
the  natural  nobility  of  presence,  which  rarely  comes 
without  family  antecedents  to  account  for  it,  is  not 
always  agreeable  to  the  many  whose  two  ideals 
are  the  man  on  horseback  and  the  man  in  his 
shirt-sleeves.  It  may  well  be  questioned  whether 
Washington,  with  his  grand  manner,  would  be 
nearly  as  popular  with  what  are  called  "the 
masses"  as  Lincoln,  with  his  homely  ways  and 
broad  stories.  The  experiment  of  universal  suffrage 
must  render  the  waters  of  political  and  social  life 
more  or  less  turbid  even  if  they  remain  innoxious. 
The  Cloaca  Maxima  can  hardly  mingle  its  contents 
with  the  stream  of  the  Aqua  Claudia,  without  tak 
ing  something  from  its  crystal  clearness.  We  need 
not  go  so  far  as  one  of  our  well-known  politicians 
has  recently  gone  in  saying  that  no  great  man  can 
reach  the  highest  position  in  our  government,  but 


222 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXIV 

1814-1877. 


we  can  safely  say  that,  apart  from  military  fame,  the 
loftiest  and  purest  and  finest  personal  qualities  are 
not  those  which  can  be  most  depended  upon  at  the 
ballot-box.  Strange  stories  are  told  of  avowed  op 
position  to  Mr.  Motley  on  the  ground  of  the  most 
trivial  differences  in  point  of  taste  in  personal  mat 
ters,  —  so  told  that  it  is  hard  to  disbelieve  them, 
and  they  show  that  the  caprices  which  we  might 
have  thought  belonged  exclusively  to  absolute 
rulers  among  their  mistresses  or  their  minions  may 
be  felt  in  the  councils  of  a  great  people  which  calls 
itself  self-governing.  It  is  perfectly  true  that  Mr. 
Motley  did  not  illustrate  the  popular  type  of  poli 
tician.  He  was  too  high-minded,  too  scholarly, 
too  generously  industrious,  too  polished,  too  much 
at  home  in  the  highest  European  circles,  too  much 
courted  for  his  personal  fascinations,  too  remote 
from  the  trading  world  of  caucus  managers.  To 
degrade  him,  so  far  as  official  capital  punishment 
could  do  it,  was  not  merely  to  wrong  one  whom 
the  nation  should  have  delighted  to  honor  as  show 
ing  it  to  the  world  in  the  fairest  flower  of  its 
young  civilization,  but  it  was  an  indignity  to  a 
representative  of  the  highest  scholarship  of  native 
growth,  which  every  student  in  the  land  felt  as  a 
discouragement  to  all  sound  learning  and  noble 
ambition. 

If  he  was  disappointed  in  his  diplomatic  career, 


A  Memoir. 


223 


he  had  enough,  and  more  than  enough,  to  console 
him  in  his  brilliant  literary  triumphs.  He  had 
earned  them  all  by  the  most  faithful  and  patient 
labor.  If  he  had  not  the  "  frame  of  adamant "  of 
the  Swedish  hero,  he  had  his  "  soul  of  fire."  No 
labors  could  tire  him,  no  difficulties  affright  him. 
What  most  surprised  those  who  knew  him  as  a 
young  man  was,  not  his  ambition,  not  his  brill 
iancy,  but  his  dogged,  continuous  capacity  for 
work.  We  have  seen  with  what  astonishment 
the  old  Dutch  scholar,  Groen  van  Prinsterer,  looked 
upon  a  man  who  had  wrestled  with  authors  like 
Bor  and  Van  Meteren,  who  had  grappled  with  the 
mightiest  folios  and  toiled  undiscouraged  among 
half-illegible  manuscript  records.  Having  spared 
no  pains  in  collecting  his  materials,  he  told  his 
story,  as  we  all  know,  with  flowing  ease  and  stir 
ring  vitality.  His  views  may  have  been  more  or 
less  partial ;  Philip  the  Second  may  have  deserved 
the  pitying  benevolence  of  poor  Maximilian ;  Mau 
rice  may  have  wept  as  sincerely  over  the  errors  of 
Arminius  as  any  one  of  "  the  crocodile  crew  that 
believe  in  election " ;  Barneveld  and  Grotius  may 
have  been  on  the  road  to  Eome;  none  of  these 
things  seem  probable,  but  if  they  were  all  proved 
true  in  opposition  to  his  views,  we  should  still  have 
the  long  roll  of  glowing  tapestry  he  has  woven  for 
us,  with  all  its  life-like  portraits,  its  almost  moving 


SECT.  XXIV. 
1814-1877. 


His  untiring 
industry. 


Life  and 
coloring  of 
his  style. 


224 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


SECT.  XXIV. 
1814-1877. 


His  fame. 


His  treat 
ment. 


His  record. 


His  memory. 


pageants,  its  sieges  where  we  can  see  the  artillery 
flashing,  its  battle-fields  with  their  smoke  and  fire, 
—  pictures  which  cannot  fade  and  which  will  pre 
serve  his  name  interwoven  with  their  own  endur 
ing  colors. 

Kepublics  are  said  to  be  ungrateful ;  it  might  be 
truer  to  say  that  they  are  forgetful.  They  forgive 
those  who  have  wronged  them  as  easily  as  they  for 
get  those  who  have  done  them  good  service.  But 
History  never  forgets  and  never  forgives.  To  her 
decision  we  may  trust  the  question,  whether  the 
warm-hearted  patriot  who  had  stood  up  for  his 
country  nobly  and  manfully  in  the  hour  of  trial, 
the  great  scholar  and  writer  who  had  reflected  honor 
upon  her  throughout  the  world  of  letters,  the  high- 
minded  public  servant,  whose  shortcomings  it  taxed 
the  ingenuity  of  experts  to  make  conspicuous  enough 
to  be  presentable,  was  treated  as  such  a  citizen 
should  have  been  dealt  with.  His  record  is  safe  in 
her  hands,  and  his  memory  will  be  precious  al 
ways  in  the  hearts  of  all  who  enjoyed  his  friend 
ship. 


APPENDIX. 


A. 

The  Saturday  Club. 

[SEE  PAGE  119.] 

THIS  Club,  of  which  we  were  both  members,  and 
which  is  still  flourishing,  came  into  existence  in  a 
very  quiet  sort  of  way  at  about  the  same  time  as 
the  Atlantic  Monthly,  and  although  entirely  uncon 
nected  with  that  magazine,  included  as  members 
some  of  its  chief  contributors.  Of  those  who  might 
have  been  met  at  some  of  the  monthly  gatherings 
in  its  earlier  days  I  may  mention  Emerson,  Haw 
thorne,  Longfellow,  Lowell,  Motley,  Whipple,  Whit- 
tier;  Professors  Agassiz  and  Peirce;  John  S.  Dwight; 
Governor  Andrew,  Eichard  H.  Dana,  Junior,  Charles 
Sumner.  It  offered  a  wide  gamut  of  intelligences, 
and  the  meetings  were  noteworthy  occasions.  If 
there  was  not  a  certain  amount  of  "  mutual  admira 
tion  "  among  some  of  those  I  have  mentioned  it  was 
a  great  pity,  and  implied  a  defect  in  the  nature  of 


The  Satur 
day  Club. 


226 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  A. 


men  who  were  otherwise  largely  endowed.  The 
vitality  of  this  club  has  depended  in  a  great  meas 
ure  on  its  utter  poverty  in  statutes  and  by-laws, 
its  entire  absence  of  formality,  and  its  blessed  free 
dom  from  speech-making. 

That  holy  man,  Richard  Baxter,  says  in  his 
Preface  to  "  Alleine's  Alarm  " :  "I  have  done,  when 
I  have  sought  to  remove  a  little  scandal,  which  I 
foresaw,  that  I  should  myself  write  the  Preface  to 
his  Life  where  himself  and  two  of  his  friends  make 
such  a  mention  of  my  name,  which  I  cannot  own ; 
which  will  seem  a  praising  him  for  praising  me.  I 
confess  it  looketh  ill-favoredly  in  me.  But  I  had 
not  the  power  of  other  men's  writings,  and  durst 
not  forbear  that  which  was  his  due." 

I  do  not  know  that  I  have  any  occasion  for  a 
similar  apology  in  printing  the  following  lines  read 
at  a  meeting  of  members  of  the  Saturday  Club  and 
other  friends  who  came  together  to  bid  farewell  to 
Motley  before  his  return  to  Europe  in  1857. 


A  PARTING  HEALTH. 

Yes,  we  knew  we  must  lose  him,  —  though  friendship 

may  claim 

To  blend  her  green  leaves  with  the  laurels  of  fame, 
Though  fondly,  at  parting,  we  call  him  our  own, 
'T  is  the  whisper  of  love  when  the  bugle  has  blown. 


Appendix. 

As  the  rider  that  rests  with  the  spur  on  his  heel,  — 
As  the  guardsman  that  sleeps  in  his  corselet  of  steel,  — 
As  the  archer  that  stands  with  his  shaft  on  the  string, 
He  stoops  from  his  toil  to  the  garland  we  bring. 


227 


What  pictures  yet  slumber  unborn  in  his  loom 

Till  their  warriors  shall  breathe  and  their  beauties  shall 

bloom, 

While  the  tapestry  lengthens  the  life-glowing  dyes 
That  caught  from  our  sunsets  the  stain  of  their  skies  ! 

In  the  alcoves  of  death,  in  the  charnels  of  time, 
Where  flit  the  dark  spectres  of  passion  and  crime, 
There  are  triumphs  untold,  there  are  martyrs  unsung, 
There  are  heroes  yet  silent  to  speak  with  his  tongue  ! 

Let  us  hear  the  proud  story  that  time  has  bequeathed 
From  lips  that  are  warm  with  the  freedom  they  breathed ! 
Let  him  summon  its  tyrants,  and  tell  us  their  doom, 
Though  he  sweep  the  black  past  like  Van  Tromp  with 
his  broom ! 


The  dream  flashes  by,  for  the  west-winds  awake 
On  pampas,  on  prairie,  o'er  mountain  and  lake, 
To  bathe  the  swift  bark,  like  a  sea-girdled  shrine 
With  incense  they  stole  from  the  rose  and  the  pine. 


228 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  A. 


A  parting 
health. 


So  fill  a  bright  cup  with  the  sunlight  that  gushed 
When  the  dead  summer's  jewels  were  trampled  and 

crushed ; 
THE  TRUE  KNIGHT  OF  LEARNING,  —  the  world  holds  him 

dear,  — 
Love  bless  him,  joy  crown  him,  God  speed  his  career ! 


Appendix. 


229 


Appendix  B. 

Habits  and  Methods  of  Study. 

MR.  MOTLEY'S  daughter,  Lady  Harcourt,  has  fa 
vored  me  with  many  interesting  particulars  which 
I  could  not  have  learned  except  from  a  member 
of  his  own  family.  Her  description  of  his  wa^"  of 
living  and  of  working  will  be  best  given  in  her 
own  words  :  — 

"  He  generally  rose  early,  the  hour  varying  some 
what  at  different  parts  of  his  life,  according  to  his 
work  and  health.  Sometimes  when  much  absorbed 
by  literary  labor  he  would  rise  before  seven,  often 
lighting  his  own  fire,  and  with  a  cup  of  tea  or  coffee 
writing  until  the  family  breakfast  hour,  after  which 
his  work  was  immediately  resumed,  and  he  usually 
sat  over  his  writing-table  until  late  in  the  afternoon, 
when  he  would  take  a  short  walk.  His  dinner 
hour  was  late,  and  he  rarely  worked  at  night. 
During  the  early  years  of  his  literary  studies  he 
led  a  life  of  great  retirement.  Later,  after  the  pub 
lication  of  the  Dutch  Eepublic  and  during  the  years 
of  official  place,  he  was  much  in  society  in  England, 
Austria,  and  Holland.  He  enjoyed  social  life,  and 


APPENDIX  B. 


Modes  of 
life  and 
habits  of 
work. 


230 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  B 


particularly  driving  out,  keenly,  but  was  very  mod 
erate  and  simple  in  all  his  personal  habits,  and  for 
many  years  before  his  death  had  entirely  given  up 
smoking.  His  work,  when  not  in  his  own  library, 
was  in  the  Archives  of  the  Netherlands,  Brussels, 
Paris,  the  English  State  Paper  Office,  and  the  Brit 
ish  Museum,  where  he  made  his  own  researches, 
patiently  and  laboriously  consulting  original  manu 
scripts  and  reading  masses  of  correspondence,  from 
which  he  afterwards  sometimes  caused  copies  to  be 
ma'de,  and  where  he  worked  for  many  consecutive 
hours  a  day.  After  his  material  had  been  thus 
painfully  and  toilfully  amassed,  the  writing  of  his 
own  story  was  always  done  at  home,  and  his  mind, 
having  digested  the  necessary  matter,  always  poured 
itself  forth  in  writing  so  copiously  that  his  revision 
was  chiefly  devoted  to  reducing  the  over-abundance. 
He  never  shrank  from  any  of  the  drudgery  of  prepa 
ration,  but  I  think  his  own  part  of  the  work  was 
sheer  pleasure  to  him." 

I  should  have  mentioned  that  his  residence  in 
London  while  Minister  was  at  the  house  No.  17 
Arlington  Street,  belonging  to  Lord  Yarborough. 


Appendix. 


231 


Appendix  0. 

Sir  William  GuWs  Account  of  his  Illness. 

I  HAVE  availed  myself  of  the  permission  implied 
in  the  subjoined  letter  of  Sir  William  Gull  to  make 
large  extracts  from  his  account  of  Mr.  Motley's 
condition  while  under  his  medical  care.  In  his 
earlier  years  he  had  often  complained  to  me  of 
those  "  nervous  feelings  connected  with  the  respi 
ration  "  referred  to  by  this  very  distinguished  phy 
sician.  I  do  not  remember  any  other  habitual 
trouble  to  which  he  was  subject. 


74  BROOK  STREET,  GROSYENOR  SQUARE,  "W. 
February  13,  1878. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  send  the  notes  of  Mr.  Motley's 
last  illness,  as  I  promised.  They  are  too  technical 
for  general  readers,  but  you  will  make  such  excep 
tion  as  you  require.  The  medical  details  may  in 
terest  your  professional  friends.  Mr.  Motley's  case 
was  a  striking  illustration  that  the  renal  disease 
of  so-called  Bright's  disease  may  supervene  as  part 


232 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  C 


Sir  William 
Gull's  ac 
count  of  Mr. 
Motley's 
illness. 


and  parcel  of  a  larger  and  antecedent  change  in  the 
blood-vessels  in  other  parts  than  the  kidney.  .  .  . 
I  am,  my  dear  sir, 

Yours  very  truly, 

WILLIAM  W.   GULL. 
To  OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES,  ESQ. 


I  first  saw  Mr.  Motley,  I  believe,  about  the  year 
1870,  on  account  of  some  nervous  feelings  connected 
with  the  respiration.  At  that  time  his  general 
health  was  good,  and  all  he  complained  of  was  oc 
casionally  a  feeling  of  oppression  about  the  chest. 
There  were  no  physical  signs  of  anything  abnormal, 
and  the  symptoms  quite  passed  away  in  the  course 
of  time,  and  with  the  use  of  simple  antispasmodic 
remedies,  such  as  camphor  and  the  like.  This  was 
my  first  interview  with  Mr.  Motley,  and  I  was  nat 
urally  glad  to  have  the  opportunity  of  making  his 
acquaintance.  I  remember  that  in  our  conversa 
tion  I  jokingly  said  that  my  wife  could  hardly  for 
give  him  for  not  making  her  hero,  Henri  IV.,  a 
perfect  character,  and  the  earnestness  with  which 
he  replied  au  serieux,  "  I  assure  you  I  have  fairly 
recorded  the  facts."  After  this  date  I  did  not  see 
Mr.  Motley  for  some  time.  He  had  three  slight 
attacks  of  hsemoptysis  in  the  autumn  of  1872,  but 
no  physical  signs  of  change  in  the  lung  tissue  re- 


Appendix. 

suited.  So  early  as  this  I  noticed  that  there  were 
signs  of  commencing  thickening  in  the  heart,  as 
shown  by  the  degree  and  extent  of  its  impulse. 
The  condition  of  his  health,  though  at  that  time 
not  very  obviously  failing,  a  good  deal  arrested  my 
attention,  as  I  thought  I  could  perceive  in  the 
occurrence  of  the  haemoptysis,  and  in  the  cardiac 
hypertrophy,  the  early  beginnings  of  vascular  de 
generation. 

In  August,  1873,  occurred  the  remarkable  seizure, 
from  the  effects  of  which  Mr.  Motley  never  recov 
ered.  I  did  not  see  him  in  the  attack,  but  was  in 
formed,  as  far  as  I  can  remember,  that  he  was  on 
a  casual  visit  at  a  friend's  house  at  luncheon  (or  it 
might  have  been  dinner),  when  he  suddenly  became 

strangely  excited,  but  not  quite  unconscious 

I  believed  at  the  time,  and  do  so  still,  that  there 
was  some  capillary  apoplexy  of  the  convolutions. 
The  attack  was  attended  with  some  hemiplegic 
weakness  on  the  right  side,  and  altered  sensation, 
and  ever  after  there  was  a  want  of  freedom  and 
ease  both  in  the  gait  and  in  the  use  of  the  arm 
of  that  side.  To  my  inquiries  from  time  to  time 
how  the  arm  was,  the  patient  would  always 
flex  and  extend  it  freely,  but  nearly  always  used 
the  expression,  "There  is  a  bedevilment  in  it"; 
though  the  hand- writing  was  not  much,  if  at  all, 
altered. 


233 


234 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  C. 


Sir  William 
Gull's  ac 
count  of  his 
illness. 


His  letter  to 
Dr.  Frank. 


In  December,  1873,  Mr.  Motley  went  by  my 
advice  to  Cannes.  I  wrote  the  following  letter*  at 
the  time  to  my  friend  Dr.  Frank,  who  was  prac 
tising  there :  — 

December  29,  1873. 

MY  DEAR  DR.  FRANK,  —  My  friend  Mr.  Motley, 
the  historian  and  late  American  Minister,  whose 
name  and  fame  no  doubt  you  know  very  well,  has 
by  my  advice  come  to  Cannes  for  the  winter  and 
spring,  and  I  have  promised  him  to  give  you  some 
account  of  his  case.  To  me  it  is  one  of  special  in 
terest,  and  personally,  as  respects  the  subject  of  it, 
of  painful  interest.  I  have  known  Mr.  Motley  for 
some  time,  but  he  consulted  me  for  the  present  con 
dition  about  midsummer. 

....  If  I  have  formed  a  correct  opinion  of  the 
pathology  of  the  case,  I  believe  the  smaller  vessels 
are  degenerating  in  several  parts  of  the  vascular 
area,  lung,  brain,  and  kidneys.  With  this  view  I 
have  suggested  a  change  of  climate,  a  nourishing 
diet,  etc. ;  and  it  is  to  be  hoped,  and  I  trust  ex 
pected,  that  by  great  attention  to  the  conditions  of 
hygiene,  internal  and  external,  the  progress  of  de 
generation  may  be  retarded.  I  have  no  doubt  you 
will  find,  as  time  goes  on,  increasing  evidence  of 

*  This  letter,  every  word  of  which  was  of  value  to  the  practi 
tioner  who  was  to  have  charge  of  the  patient,  relates  many  of  the 
facts  given  above,  and  I  shall  therefore  only  give  extracts  from  it. 


Appendix. 

renal  change,  but  this  is  rather  a  coincidence  and 
consequence  than  a  cause,  though  no  doubt  when 
the  renal  change  has  reached  a  certain  point,  it  be 
comes  in  its  own  way  a  factor  of  other  lesions.  I 
have  troubled  you  at  this  length  because  my  mind 
is  much  occupied  with  the  pathology  of  these  cases, 
and  because  no  case  can,  on  personal  grounds,  more 
strongly  challenge  our  attention. 

Yours  very  truly, 

WILLIAM  W.   GULL. 

During  the  spring  of  1874,  whilst  at  Cannes,  Mr. 
Motley  had  a  sharp  attack  of  nephritis,  attended 
with  fever ;  but  on  returning  to  England  in  July 
there  was  no  important  change  in  the  health.  The 
weakness  of  the  side  continued,  and  the  inability  to 
undertake  any  mental  work.  The  signs  of  cardiac 
hypertrophy  were  more  distinct.  In  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1875  I  wrote  as  follows :  — 

February  20,  1875. 

MY  DEAE  MR.  MOTLEY,  —  ....  The  examination 
I  have  just  made  appears  to  indicate  that  the  main 
conditions  of  your  health  are  more  stable  than  they 
were  some  months  ago,  and  would  therefore  be  so 
far  in  favor  of  your  going  to  America  in  the  sum 
mer,  as  we  talked  of.  The  ground  of  my  doubt  has 
lain  in  the  possibility  of  such  a  trip  further  disor- 


235 


APPENDIX  C. 


Sir  William 
Gull's  ac 
count  of  his 
illuess. 


236 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  C 


Sir  William 
Gull's  ac 
count  of  his 

illness. 


Mr.  Motley's 
letter  to  Sir 
William  Gull. 


deriug  the  circulation, 
now  less  risk. 


Of  this,  I  hope,  there  is 


On  the  4th  of  June,  1875,  I  received  the  follow 
ing  letter. 

CALVERLT  PARK  HOTEL,  TUNBRIDGE  WELLS, 
June  4,  1875. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  WILLIAM,  —  I  have  been  absent 
from  town  for  a  long  time,  but  am  to  be  there  on 
the  9th  and  10th.  Could  I  make  an  appointment 
with  you  for  either  of  those  days  ?  I  am  anxious 
to  have  a  full  consultation  with  you  before  leaving 
for  America.  Our  departure  is  fixed  for  the  19th 
of  this  month.  I  have  not  been  worse  than  usual 
of  late.  I  thmk  myself,  on  the  contrary,  rather 
stronger,  and  it  is  almost  impossible  for  me  not  to 
make  my  visit  to  America  this  summer,  unless  you 
should  absolutely  prohibit  it.  If  neither  of  those 
days  should  suit  you,  could  you  kindly  suggest  an 
other  day  ?  I  hope,  however,  you  can  spare  me 
half  an  hour  on  one  of  those  days,  as  I  like  to  get 
as  much  of  this  bracing  air  as  I  can.  Will  you 
kindly  name  the  hour  when  I  may  call  on  you,  and 
address  me  at  this  hotel.  Excuse  this  slovenly  note 
in  pencil,  but  it  fatigues  my  head  and  arm  much 
more  to  sit  at  a  writing-table  with  pen  and  ink. 
Always  most  sincerely  yours, 

My  dear  Sir  William. 

J.  L.  MOTLEY. 


Appendix. 

On  Mr.  Motley's  return  from  America  I  saw  him, 
and  found  him,  I  thought,  rather  better  in  general 
health  than  when  he  left  England. 

In  December,  1875,  Mr.  Motley  consulted  me  for 
trouble  of  vision  in  reading  or  walking,  from  sensa 
tions  like  those  produced  by  flakes  of  falling  snow 
coming  between  him  and  the  objects  he  was  looking 
at.  Mr.  Bowman,  one  of  our  most  excellent  oculists, 
was  then  consulted.  Mr.  Bowman  wrote  to  me  as 
follows :  "  Such  symptoms  as  exist  point  rather  to 
disturbed  retinal  function  than  to  any  brain-mis 
chief.  It  is,  however,  quite  likely  that  what  you 
fear  for  the  brain  may  have  had  its  counterpart 
in  the  nerve-structures  of  the  eye,  and  as  he  is 
short-sighted,  this  tendency  may  be  further  inten 
sified." 

Mr.  Bowman  suggested  no  more  than  such  an 
arrangement  of  glasses  as  might  put  the  eyes,  when 
in  use,  under  better  optic  conditions. 

The  year  1876  was  passed  over  without  any  spe 
cial  change  worth  notice.  The  walking  powers 
were  much  impeded  by  the  want  of  control  over 
the  right  leg.  The  mind  was  entirely  clear,  though 
Mr.  Motley  did  not  feel  equal,  and  indeed  had 
been  advised  not  to  apply  himself  to  any  literary 
work.  Occasional  conversations,  when  I  had  inter 
views  with  him  on  the  subject  of  his  health,  proved 
that  the  attack  which  had  weakened  the  niove- 


237 


APPENDIX  C. 


Sir  William 
Gull's  ac 
count  of  his 
illness. 


238 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  C 


Sir  William 
Gull's  ac 
count  of  his 
illness. 


His  mental 
condition. 


ments  of  the  right  side  had  not  impaired  the  men 
tal  power.  The  most  noticeable  change  which  had 
coine  over  Mr.  Motley  since  I  first  knew  him  was 
due  to  the  death  of  Mrs.  Motley  in  December,  1874. 
It  had  in  fact  not  only  profoundly  depressed  him, 
but,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  had  removed  the  centre 
of  his  thought  to  a  new  world.  In  long  conversa 
tions  with  me  of  a  speculative  kind,  after  that  pain 
ful  event,  it  was  plain  how  much  his  point  of  view  of 
the  whole  course  and  relation  of  things  had  changed. 
His  mind  was  the  last  to  dogmatize  on  any  subject. 
There  was  a  candid  and  childlike  desire  to  know, 
with  an  equal  confession  of  the  incapacity  of  the 
human  intellect.  I  wish  I  could  recall  the  actual 
expressions  he  used,  but  the  sense  was  that  which 
has  been  so  well  stated  by  Hooker  in  concluding 
an  exhortation  against  the  pride  of  the  human  in 
tellect,  where  he  remarks :  — 

"  Dangerous  it  were  for  the  feeble  brain  of  man 
to  wade  far  into  the  doings  of  the  Most  High; 
whom  although  to  know  be  life,  and  joy  to  make 
mention  of  His  Name,  yet  our  soundest  knowledge 
is  to  know  that  we  know  Him,  not  indeed  as  He 
is,  neither  can  know  Him;  and  our  safest  elo 
quence  concerning  Him  is  our  silence,  when 
we  confess  without  confession  that  His  glory  is 
inexplicable,  His  greatness  above  our  capacity 
and  reach.  He  is  above  and  we  upon  earth; 


Appendix. 

therefore  it  behoveth  our  words  to  be  wary  and 
few." 

Mrs.  Motley's  illness  was  not  a  long  one,  and 
the  nature  of  it  was  such  that  its  course  could  with 
certainty  be  predicted.  Mr.  Motley  and  her  chil 
dren  passed  the  remaining  days  of  her  life,  extend 
ing  over  about  a  month,  with  her,  in  the  mutual 
understanding  that  she  was  soon  to  part  from  them. 
The  character  of  the  illness,  and  the  natural  ex 
haustion  of  her  strength  by  suffering,  lessened  the 
shock  of  her  death,  though  not  the  loss,  to  those 
who  survived  her. 

The  last  time  I  saw  Mr.  Motley  was,  I  believe, 
about  two  months  before  his  death,  March  28th, 
1877.  There  was  no  great  change  in  his  health, 
but  he  complained  of  indescribable  sensations  in  his 
nervous  system,  and  felt  as  if  losing  the  wrhole 
power  of  walking,  but  this  was  not  obvious  in  his 
gait,  although  he  walked  shorter  distances  than  be 
fore.  I  heard  no  more  of  him  until  I  was  suddenly 
summoned  on  the  29th  of  May  into  Devonshire  to 
see  him.  The  telegram  I  received  was  so  urgent, 
that  I  suspected  some  rupture  of  a  blood-vessel  in 
the  brain,  and  that  I  should  hardly  reach  him  alive ; 
and  this  was  the  case.  About  two  o'clock  in  the 
day  he  complained  of  a  feeling  of  faintness,  said  he 
felt  ill  and  should  not  recover ;  and  in  a  few  min 
utes  was  insensible  with  symptoms  of  ingravescent 


240 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  C. 


apoplexy.  There  was  extensive  haemorrhage  into 
the  brain,  as  shown  by  post-mortem  examination, 
the  cerebral  vessels  being  atheromatous.  The  fatal 
haemorrhage  had  occurred  into  the  lateral  ven 
tricles,  from  rupture  of  one  of  the  middle  cerebral 
arteries. 

I  am,  my  dear  Sir, 

Yours  very  truly, 

WILLIAM  W.  GULL. 


Appendix. 


241 


Appendix  D. 

Place  of  Burial.  —  Funeral  Service.  —  Epitaphs.  — 
Dean  Stanley's  Funeral  Sermon. 

ME.  MOTLEY  was  buried  by  the  side  of  his  wife 
in  Kensal  Green  Cemetery,  just  outside  of  London. 
Services  were  held  in  the  chapel  at  the  cemetery. 

The  following  account  of  the  funeral  is  'extracted 
from  a  letter  of  Mr.  Smalley  to  the  New  York 
Tribune :  — 

"  Mr.  Motley  was  buried  on  Monday  in  Kensal 
Green  Cemetery,  Dean  Stanley  performing  the 
service.  The  funeral  was  neither  quite  public  nor 
quite  private.  It  had  been  Dean  Stanley's  wish 
that  it  should  take  place  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
He  had  proposed  that  the  body,  when  brought  from 
Dorsetshire,  should  lie  over  night  in  the  Abbey ; 
that  a  ceremony  should  be  held  there  in  the  morn 
ing,  and  that  the  friends  of  the  deceased  should 
assemble  at  the  Abbey  and  accompany  the  body 
thence  to  the  cemetery.  But  some  difficulties — I 
could  not  make  out  what  —  stood  in  the  way  of 
this  arrangement.  It  is  cause  for  regret  that  the 
kind  purposes  of  the  Dean  could  not  be  carried 


APPENDIX  I). 


Funeral  of 
Mr.  Motley. 


Mr. 

Snialley's 
account. 


242 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  D 

Funeral  of 
Mr.  Motley. 


out.  Mr.  Motley's  friends  —  and  all  Americans, 
because  he  was  an  American — would  have  liked 
that  some  of  the  last  words  said  over  him  should 
have  been  said  in  the  great  church  which  has  so 
peculiar  an  interest  for  Americans,  —  which  Ameri 
cans  in  general  venerate  as  they  venerate  no  cathe 
dral  and  no  other  church.  As  it  was  not  to  be,  we 
can  only  express  our  gratitude  to  Dean  Stanley  for 
his  readiness  to  bring  it  about. 

"  The  service  at  the  Kensal  Green  Chapel  was  of 
course  the  burial  service  of  the  Church  of  England, 
of  which  Mr.  Motley  was  a  member.  His  three 
daughters,  Lady  Harcourt,  Mrs.  Sheridan,  and  Miss 
Motley,  were  present,  and  with  Sir  William  Har 
court,  Mr.  Russell  Sturgis,  and  Mr.  Sheridan,  fol 
lowed  the  coffin  from  the  chapel  to  the  grave. 
Among  others  present  were  Mr.  Bright,  the  Duke 
of  Argyll,  Mr.  Froude,  Lord  Houghton,  Mr.  Thomas 
Hughes,  the  Minister  of  the  Netherlands,  the  Min 
ister  of  Belgium,  the  Hon.  Lyulph  Stanley,  Mr. 
Lecky,  Mr.  Hoppin,  Mr.  Murray,  Mr.  Edward 
Dicey,  and  Mr.  Conway." 

The  inscriptions  on  the  gravestones  are  these :  — 
JOHN  LOTHROP  MOTLEY. 

BORN  AT  DORCHESTER,  MASS.,  APRIL  15,  1814. 

DIED  NEAR  DORCHESTER,  DORSET,  MAY  29,  1877. 

In  God  is  light,  and  in  him  is  no  darkness  at  all. 


Appendix. 

MAEY  ELIZABETH,  WIFE  OF  JOHN  LOTHKOP  MOTLEY. 

BORN  APRIL  7,  1813. 

DIED  DECEMBER  31,  1874. 

Truth  shall  make  you  free. 

On  the  3d  of  June  Dean  Stanley  preached  a  ser 
mon  in  Westminster  Abbey,  in  which  he  referred 
with  much  feeling  to  the  death  of  Mr.  Motley. 
I  give  a  few  extracts  from  the  manuscript  notes 
sent  me  by  Miss  Motley. 

" .  .  .  .  But  there  is  a  yet  deeper  key  of  har 
mony  that  has  just  been  struck  within  the  last  week. 
The  hand  of  death  has  removed  from  his  dwelling- 
place  amongst  us  one  of  the  brightest  lights  of  the 
Western  hemisphere,  —  the  high-spirited  patriot, 
the  faithful  friend  of  England's  best  and  purest 
spirits,  the  brilliant,  the  indefatigable  historian  who 
told  as  none  before  him  had  told  the  history  of  the 
rise  and  struggle  of  the  Dutch  Eepublic,  almost  a 
part  of  his  own. 

"  We  sometimes  ask  what  room  or  place  is  left 
in  the  crowded  temple  of  Europe's  fame  for  one  of 
the  Western  world  to  occupy.  But  a  sufficient 
answer  is  given  in  the  work  which  was  reserved  to 
be  accomplished  by  him  who  has  just  departed. 
So  long  as  the  tale  of  the  greatness  of  the  house 
of  Orange,  of  the  siege  of  Leyden,  of  the  tragedy 
of  Barneveld,  interests  mankind,  so  long  will  Hol- 


243 


A.PPKNDIX  D. 


244 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


land  be  indissolubly  connected  with  the  name  of 
Motley  in  that  union  of  the  ancient  culture  of 
Europe  with  the  aspirations  of  America  which  was 
so  remarkable  in  the  ardent,  laborious,  soaring  soul 
that  has  passed  away.  He  loved  that  land  of  his 
with  a  passionate  zeal,  he  loved  the  land  of  his 

adoption  with  a  surpassing  love He  loved 

the  fatherland,  the  mother  tongue  of  the  litera 
ture  which  he  had  made  his  own.  He  loved  the 
land  which  was  the  happy  home  of  his  children,  and 
which  contained  the  dearly  cherished  grave  of  her 
beside  whom  he  will  be  laid  to-morrow.  When 
ever  any  gifted  spirit  passes  from  our  world  to  the 
other  it  brings  both  within  our  nearer  view,  —  the 
world  of  this  mortal  life  with  its  contentions  and 
strifes,  its  joys  and  griefs,  now  to  him  closed  for 
ever,  but  amidst  which  he  won  his  fame,  and  in 
which  his  name  shall  long  endure,  and  the  other 
world  of  our  ideal  vision,  of  our  inexhaustible  long 
ings,  of  our  blank  misgivings,  of  our  inextinguish 
able  hopes,  of  our  everlasting  reunions,  the  eternal 
love  in  which  live  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  per 
fect,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  which  being  above  is 
free,  the  city  of  which  God  himself  is  the  light, 
and  in  whose  light  we  shall  see  light." 


Appendix. 


245 


Appendix  E. 

From  the  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society. 

AT  a  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society,  held  on  Thursday,  the  14th  of  June,  1877, 
after  the  reading  of  the  records  of  the  preceding 
meeting,  the  President,  the  Hon.  Eobert  C.  Win- 
throp,  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

"  Our  first  thoughts  to-day,  gentlemen,  are  of 
those  whom  we  may  not  again  welcome  to  these 
halls.  We  shall  be  in  no  mood,  certainly,  for  en 
tering  on  other  subjects  this  morning,  until  we  have 
given  some  expression  to  our  deep  sense  of  the  loss 
—  the  double  loss  —  which  our  Society  has  sus 
tained  since  our  last  monthly  meeting."  ....  * 

After  a  most  interesting  and  cordial  tribute  to 
his  friend,  Mr.  Quincy,  Mr.  Winthrop  continued : — 

"  The  death  of  our  distinguished  associate,  Motley, 
can  hardly  have  taken  many  of  us  by  surprise. 
Sudden  at  the  moment  of  its  occurrence,  we  had 


*  Edmund  Quincy  died  May  17. 
May  29. 


John  Lothrop  Motley  died 


APPENDIX  E. 

Tributes  of 
the  Mass. 
Historical 
Society. 


Hon.  R.  C. 
Winthrop'g 
remarks. 


246 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  E, 


Mass.  Hist. 
Society.  Mr. 
Winthrop's 
remarks. 


long  been  more  or  less  prepared  for  it  by  his  failing 
health.  It  must,  indeed,  have  been  quite  too  evi 
dent  to  those  who  had  seen  him,  during  the  last 
two  or  three  years,  that  his  life-work  was  finished. 
I  think  he  so  regarded  it  himself. 

"  Hopes  may  have  been  occasionally  revived  in 
the  hearts  of  his  friends,  and  even  in  his  own  heart, 
that  his  long-cherished  purpose  of  completing  a 
History  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  as  the  grand  con 
summation  of  his  historical  labors,  —  for  which  all 
his  other  volumes  seemed  to  him  to  have  been  but 
the  preludes  and  overtures,  —  might  still  be  accom 
plished.  But  such  hopes,  faint  and  flickering  from 
his  first  attack,  had  wellnigh  died  away.  They 
were  like  Prescott's  hopes  of  completing  his  Philip 
the  Second,  or  like  Macaulay's  hopes  of  finishing 
his  brilliant  History  of  England. 

"  But  great  as  may  be  the  loss  to  literature  of  • 
such  a  crowning  work  from  Motley's  pen,  it  was  by 
no  means  necessary  to  the  completeness  of  his  own 
fame.  His  'Eise  of  the  Dutch  Eepublic,'  his 
'History  of  the  United  Netherlands,'  and  his  'Life 
of  John  of  Barneveld,"  had  abundantly  established 
his  reputation,  and  given  him  a  fixed  place  among 
the  most  eminent  historians  of  our  country  and  of 
our  age. 

"No  American  writer,  certainly,  has  secured  a 
wider  recognition  or  a  higher  appreciation  from  the 


Appendix. 

scholars  of  the  Old  World.  The  Universities  of 
England  and  the  learned  societies  of  Europe  have 
bestowed  upon  him  their  largest  honors.  It  hap 
pened  to  me  to  be  in  Paris  when  he  was  first  chosen 
a  corresponding  member  of  the  Institute,  and  when 
his  claims  were  canvassed  with  the  freedom  and 
earnestness  which  peculiarly  characterize  such  a 
candidacy  in  France.  There  was  no  mistaking  the 
profound  impression  which  his  first  work  had  made 
on  the  minds  of  such  men  as  Guizot  and  Mignet. 
Within  a  year  or  two  past  a  still  higher  honor  has 
been  awarded  him  from  the  same  source.  The 
journals  not  long  ago  announced  his  election  as  one 
of  the  six  foreign  associates  of  the  French  Academy 
of  Moral  and  Political  Sciences,  —  a  distinction 
which  Prescott  would  probably  have  attained  had 
he  lived  a  few  years  longer,  until  there  was  a 
vacancy,  but  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  believe, 
Motley  was  the  only  American  writer,  except  the 
late  Edward  Livingston,  of  Louisiana,  who  has 
actually  enjoyed. 

"  Eesiding  much  abroad,  for  the  purpose  of  pur 
suing  his  historical  researches,  he  had  become  the 
associate  and  friend  of  the  most  eminent  literary 
men  in  almost  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  sin 
gular  charms  of  his  conversation  and  manners  had 
made  him  a  favorite  guest  in  the  most  refined  and 
exalted  circles. 


247 


APPENDIX  E. 


Mass.  Hist 
Society.  Mr. 
Winthrop's 
remarks. 


248 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  E 


Mass.  Hist. 
Society.    Mr 
Winthrop's 
remarks. 


"  Of  his  relations  to  political  and  public  life,  this 
is  hardly  the  occasion  or  the  moment  for  speaking 
in  detail.  Misconstructions  and  injustices  are  the 
proverbial  lot  of  those  who  occupy  eminent  position. 
It  was  a  duke  of  Vienna,  if  I  remember  rightly, 
whom  Shakespeare,  in  his  '  Measure  for  Measure/ 
introduces  as  exclaiming,  — 

'  0  place  and  greatness,  millions  of  false  eyes 
Are  stuck  upon  thee  !     Volumes  of  report 
Him  with  these  false  and  most  contrarious  quests 
Upon  thy  doings  !     Thousand  'scapes  of  wit 
Make  thee  the  father  of  their  idle  dream, 
And  rack  thee  iu  their  fancies  ! ' 

"  I  forbear  from  all  application  of  the  lines.  It 
is  enough  for  me,  certainly,  to  say  here,  to-day,  that 
our  country  was  proud  to  be  represented  at  the 
courts  of  Vienna  and  London  successively  by  a 
gentleman  of  so  much  culture  and  accomplishment 
as  Mr.  Motley,  and  that  the  circumstances  of  his 
recall  were  deeply  regretted  by  us  all. 

"  His  fame,  however,  was  quite  beyond  the  reach 
of  any  such  accidents,  and  could  neither  be  enhanced 
or  impaired  by  appointments  or  removals.  As  a 
powerful  and  brilliant  historian  we  pay  him  our 
unanimous  tribute  of  admiration  and  regret,  and 
give  him  a  place  in  our  memories  by  the  side  of 
Prescott  and  Irving.  I  do  not  forget  how  many  of 
us  lament  him,  also,  as  a  cherished  friend. 


Appendix. 

"  He  died  on  the  29th  ultimo,  at  the  house  of  his 
daughter,  Mrs.  Sheridan,  in  Dorsetshire,  England, 
and  an  impressive  tribute  to  his  memory  was  paid, 
in  Westminster  Abbey,  on  the  following  Sunday, 
by  our  Honorary  Member,  Dean  Stanley.  Such  a 
tribute,  from  such  lips,  and  with  such  surroundings, 
leaves  nothing  to  be  desired  in  the  way  of  eulogy. 
He  was  buried  in  Kensal  Green  Cemetery,  by  the 
side  of  his  beloved  wife. 

"  One  might  well  say  of  Motley  precisely  what 
he  said  of  Prescott,  in  a  letter  from  Rome  to  our 
associate,  Mr.  "William  Amory,  immediately  on 
hearing  of  Prescott's  death  :  '  I  feel  inexpressibly 
disappointed  —  speaking  now  for  an  instant  purely 
from  a  literary  point  of  view  —  that  the  noble  and 
crowning  monument  of  his  life,  for  which  he  had 
laid  such  massive  foundations,  and  the  structure  of 
which  had  been  carried  forward  in  such  a  grand  and 
masterly  manner,  must  remain  uncompleted,  like 
the  unfinished  peristyle  of  some  stately  and  beauti 
ful  temple  on  which  the  night  of  time  has  suddenly 
descended.  But,  still,  the  works  which  his  great 
and  untiring  hand  had  already  thoroughly  finished 
will  remain  to  attest  his  learning  and  genius,  —  a 
precious  and  perpetual  possession  for  his  country.' 

"  I  am  authorized  by  the  Council  to  offer  the  fol 
lowing  resolutions :  — 


249 


\PPENDIXE. 


Mass.  Hist. 
Society.  Mr. 
Winthrop's 
remarks. 


250 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


" '  Resolved,  That  by  the  death  of  the  Hon.  John 
Lothrop  Motley  this  Society  has  lost  one  of  its 
most  distinguished  members,  and  American  litera 
ture  one  of  its  brightest  ornaments  ;  a  son  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  who,  in  illustrating  so  powerfully  the 
annals  of  another  land,  has  reflected  the  highest 
honor  on  his  own,  and  whose  fame  as  an  historian 
will  ever  be  cherished  among  the  treasures  of  his 
native  State. 

" '  Resolved,  That  the  President  be  requested  to 
nominate  one  of  our  associates  to  prepare  a  Memoir 
of  Mr.  Motley.' " 

William  Amory,  Esq.,  spoke  as  follows :  — 
"  I  thank  you  cordially,  Mr.  President,  for  afford 
ing  to  me  at  this  time  the  opportunity  of  paying 
the  tribute  of  a  few  remarks  to  the  memory  of  one 
whom  I  had  so  long  known,  loved,  and  honored 
as  Mr.  Motley ;  and,  though  I  may  fail  to  do  it  in 
words  suitable  to  the  occasion,  or  satisfactory  to 
myself,  I  am  compelled  by  the  promptings  of  my 
heart,  not  alone  in  silence  to  mingle  my  tears  with 
those  of  the  family  and  friends  who  mourn  the  loss 
of  a  father,  brother,  and  friend,  but  to  join  also  my 
voice  with  the  voices  of  those  who  are  gathered 
here  to-day  to  deplore  the  loss  and  honor  the  mem 
ory  of  him  who,  as  our  associate,  by  his  writings 
and  character  has  contributed  so  largely  to  elevate 


Appendix. 

the  reputation  of  this  Society,  to  embellish  the 
name  of  this  community,  and  to  reflect  throughout 
the  civilized  world  the  lustre  of  his  own  name  on 
the  literature  of  his  native  country.  Till  about 
1840  I  personally  knew  little  of  Mr.  Motley;  but 
since  then  our  intimacy  has  been  unbroken  and  our 
intercourse  uninterrupted,  except  by  his  absence  in 
Europe.  The  lapse  of  almost  forty  years  since  I 
first  saw  him  has  scarcely  effaced  from  the  fresh 
ness  of  my  memory  my  first  impression  of  the 
transparent  nature  and  striking  idiosyncrasies  of 
his  remarkable  character,  which  made  it  easy  to 
imagine  the  past,  and  not  difficult  to  divine  the 
future  of  his  brilliant  career.  The  expressive 
beauty  of  his  face,  the  manly  elegance  of  his  person, 
his  winning  ways,  his  sparkling  wit,  and  the  irre 
sistible  charm  of  his  conversation,  all  gave  even  then 
assurance  of  distinction  and  promise  of  fame  in  his 
riper  years.  A  few  years  later,  at  about  thirty,  not 
inclined  to  the  practice  of  the  law,  which  he  had 
studied  partly  as  an  accomplishment,  partly  as  a 
possible  means  of  support,  and  partly  as  a  prepara 
tion  for  any  other  pursuit  he  might  embrace  as 
more  congenial  to  his  temperament  or  taste,  he 
determined  upon  a  literary  career,  and,  as  his  gen 
ius,  attainments,  studies,  and  tastes  inclined  him 
thereto,  he,  fortunately  for  himself  and  the  world, 
adopted  history  as  a  specialty,  and  selected  'The 


251 


APPENDIX  E. 


Mass.  Hist 
Society. 
Mr.  Amory's 
remarks. 


252 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic '  as  the  subject  of  his 
first  historical  work. 

"  His  brilliant  success  a  few  years  later,  on  the 
publication  of  that  book,  showed  how  wisely  he 
had  chosen  for  his  own  reputation,  for  the  honor  of 
the  republic  whose  history  he  faithfully,  pictu 
resquely,  and  elegantly  depicted,  and  for  that  of  the 
republic  at  home,  upon  which  he  at  once  shed  such 
glory  as  a  writer.  By  this,  his  first  history,  pub 
lished  in  London  in  1856,  he  was  raised  by  com 
mon  consent  at  one  bound  to  the  front  rank  of 
illustrious  historians  in  the  English  language,  and 
by  his  subsequent  works,  though  perhaps  less  at 
tractive  to  the  general  reader,  he  has  sustained  the 
reputation  he  at  that  time  acquired. 

"With  a  few  of  his  friends  in  this  country,  I 
was  favored  with  the  privilege  of  a  perusal  of  those 
volumes  before  they  were  published  in  England; 
and,  though  already  entertaining  a  high  apprecia 
tion  of  his  genius  and  powers,  I  was  inexpressibly 
surprised  at  the  eloquence  of  the  style,  the  interest 
of  the  narrative,  the  variety,  aptitude,  and  brill 
iancy  of  the  illustrations,  and  the  life-like  fidelity 
of  the  portraits  of  the  chief  actors  in  that  wonder 
ful  historical  drama,  but  above  all  by  the  untiring 
industry  and  diligent  research  displayed  through 
out  in  procuring,  preparing,  and  using  so  ably  such 
copious  materials  from  such  various  sources.  Three 


Appendix. 

years  after  its  publication,  in  18-59,  Mr.  Motley,  on 
hearing  of  the  death  of  W.  H.  Prescott,  his  friend 
and  brother  historian,  wrote  from  Kome  a  long  let 
ter,  containing  a  very  interesting  account  of  an  inter 
view  he  had  sought  with  Mr.  Prescott  about  twelve 
years  before,  in  relation  to  the  subject  of  the  Rise 
of  the  Dutch  Republic.  That  letter  was  read  by  Mr. 
Sears  at  a  meeting  of  this  Society,  holden  in  April, 
1859,,  and  recorded  in  full  on  page  266  of  the  pub 
lished  '  Proceedings '  of  1858-60.  Though  too  long 
to  be  read  here,  it  is  so  touching  and  beautiful 
a  letter,  and  so  creditable  and  honorable  to  both 
Mr.  Motley  and  Mr.  Prescott,  that  I  have  ventured 
to  allude  to  it  for  the  benefit  of  such  members  of 
this  Society  as  have  either  forgotten  or  never  seen 
it,  and  to  whom  at  this  moment  it  may  have  a 
peculiar  interest,  if  they  possess  the  volume  of  the 
'  Proceedings '  referred  to.  The  subject  of  the  letter 
may  be  briefly  stated  thus  :  About  1846,  Mr.  Motley 
had  collected  materials  and  made  preparations  to 
write  '  The  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,'  ignorant 
of  the  fact  that  Mr.  Prescott  had  still  earlier  also 
made  still  larger  preparations  to  write  the  'His 
tory  of  Philip  II.'  As,  in  writing  upon  subjects 
so  closely  identified  in  time  and  events,  it  was 
obvious  that  Mr.  Motley  must  often  traverse  the 
same  ground  occupied  by  Mr.  Prescott,  he  deter 
mined,  when  informed  by  a  friend  of  Mr.  Prescott's 


253 


APPENDIX  E. 


Mass.  Hist. 
Society. 
Mr.  Amory'g 
remarks. 


254 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


intention,  to  go  to  him  and  confer  with  him  on  the 
subject;  and,  if  he  should  find  that  Mr.  Prescott 
had  a  shadow  of  objection  to  his  proceeding  with 
his  history,  to  abandon  it  at  once,  though  already 
so  enamored  of  the  subject  he  had  selected  that  it 
was  to  him,  as  he  said,  like  surrendering  his  his 
torical  career.  He  did  so,  was  most  kindly  re 
ceived,  and  cordially  encouraged  to  proceed  with 
the  work  at  once  by  Mr.  Prescott,  who,  at  the  same 
time,  generously  volunteered  to  offer  any  aid  in  his 
power  and  the  free  use  of  his  library. 

"  Such  is  the  summary  of  the  purpose  and  result 
of  that  interview ;  but  to  realize  the  sacrifice  which 
the  young  aspirant  to  authorship  was  ready  to 
make  to  a  nice  sense  of  honor  and  courtesy  to  the 
perhaps  doubtful  priority  of  the  conventional  claim 
of  one  with  whom  at  that  time  he  was  only  slightly 
acquainted,  or  to  appreciate  the  genuine  gratitude 
and  pleasure  inspired  by  the  cordial  aid  and  gener 
ous  encouragement  offered  him  by  Mr.  Prescott,  it 
is  necessary  to  read  the  letter  itself. 

"  I  have,  Mr.  President,  perhaps  dwelt  too  long 
on  this  subject ;  but  the  temptation  to  present  in 
one  picture,  and  to  illustrate  by  one  anecdote,  the 
different,  but  equally  beautiful,  traits  of  character 
exhibited  in  the  same  story  by  the  two  most  illus 
trious  historians  of  this  country  must  be  my  excuse. 

"  You  may  well  be  proud,  sir,  that  during  your 


Appendix. 

presidency  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 
the  names  of  Prescott  and  Motley,  both  your  asso 
ciates,  have  been  enrolled  by  universal  consent  in 
the  same  rank  with  those  of  Hume,  Gibbon,  and 
Robertson,  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  Hallam 
and  Macaulay,  of  the  nineteenth ;  and  it  is  worth 
recording  on  the  same  page  that  these  friends  and 
brother  historians  of  the  same  subject  were  natives 
of  the  same  State,  citizens  of  the  same  city,  grad 
uates  of  the  same  college,  equally  remarkable  for 
their  personal  beauty  and  the  charms  of  their  man 
ners,  published  their  first  histories  at  the  same 
time  of  life,  and  died  in  precisely  the  same  man 
ner,  at  about  the  same  age.  With  more  time,  it 
would  be  gratifying  to  compare  and  contrast  those 
elements  of  moral,  intellectual,  and  social  charac 
ter,  which,  though  so  different  in  each  of  these 
distinguished  men,  contributed  so  equally  to  the 
charms  and  celebrity  of  both  in  the  world  of  letters 
and  in  the  society  of  the  world ;  but  it  is  too  late, 
and  I  am  conscious  that  already  I  have  encroached 
upon  the  ground  of  his  literary  friends,  instead  of 
confining  myself  to  those  social  and  domestic  beau 
ties  of  his  character,  so  much  richer  in  interest  and 
materials,  and  upon  which  I  am  so  much  better 
authority.  One  of  these  attributes,  and,  as  I  think, 
the  most  prominent  and  characteristic  of  all,  was 
the  tender  affectionateness  of  his  nature,  which, 


255 


250 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


within  the  small  circle  of  his  home  and  friends,  was 
irresistibly  winning,  and  which,  though  less  known 
to  the  outside  world,  pervaded  his  whole  being,  and 
was  often  the  hidden  source  of  that  magnetism 
and  fascination  which  captivated  all,  and  won  for 
him  hosts  of  friends  and  admirers  wherever  he  was 
known. 

"  His  ready  and  deep  sympathy  in  the  hour  of 
sorrow  or  affliction,  as  indicated  by  the  tones  of  his 
voice,  the  expression  of  his  face,  or  the  simple  elo 
quence  of  his  words,  will  be  long  remembered  by 
many.  Passing  by  that  greatest  and  last  domestic 
affliction,  which  made  his  home  so  desolate  and  his 
life  so  sad  for  the  last  two  years,  as  too  recent  and 
sacred  to  be  more  than  glanced  at,  I  recall  that 
agony  of  grief  occasioned  many  years  before  by  the 
sudden  and  shocking  death  of  his  nearest  and  dear 
est  friend,  Mr.  Stackpole.  Mr.  Motley,  for  a  while 
at  that  time  a  near  neighbor  of  mine,  spent  every 
afternoon  with  me  on  my  piazza  at  Longwood ;  and 
I  shall  never  forget  the  touching  words  and  man 
ner  in  which  he  bewailed  his  loss  in  all  the  variety 
of  thought  and  language  which  death  and  friend 
ship  could  suggest,  and  with  all  the  eloquence  of 
an  *  In  Memoriam.'  He  could  think  and  talk  of 
nothing  else.  Subdued  and  softened  by  his  sorrow, 
he  seemed  an  altered  man,  and  in  the  tenderness  of 
his  grief  he  was  more  like  a  mother  weeping  for 


Appendte. 

an  only  child  than  a  strong  man  mourning  the  loss 
even  of  his  dearest  friend.  How  easy  it  would  be, 
Mr.  President,  to  select  from  a  character  so  rich  in 
its  endless  variety  many  other  equally  interesting 
peculiarities,  and  to  illustrate  them  by  similar  rem 
iniscences,  no  one  can  imagine  without  a  familiar 
acquaintance  with  the  incidents  of  his  life,  and  a 
nice  appreciation  of  those  fine  impulses  of  his 
nature  which  have  shaped  his  career ;  and  this  can 
be  fitly  done  only  by  the  eloquent  pen  of  a  biog 
rapher  who  has  known  him  from  his  youth. 

"  I  have  made  no  allusion  to  Mr.  Motley's  diplo 
matic  career,  which,  but  for  circumstances  beyond 
his  control  and  not  attributable  to  any  fault  of  his, 
might  have  been  as  distinguished  as  his  career  as 
a  writer,  because  I  am  sure  that,  to  all  who  knew 
him,  or  the  history  of  the  termination  of  his  mis 
sions  to  Vienna  and  London,  any  defence  of  him 
certainly,  on  either  side  of  the  water,  would  be  en 
tirely  superfluous." 

The  President  now  called  on  Dr.  Oliver  Wen 
dell  Holmes,  who  said  :  — 

"The  thoughts  which  suggest  themselves  upon 
this  occasion  are  such  as  belong  to  the  personal 
memories  of  the  dear  friends  whom  we  have  lost, 
rather  than  to  their  literary  labors,  the  just  tribute 
to  which  must  wait  for  a  calmer  hour  than  the 


257 


APPENDIX  E. 


Mass.  Hist. 
Society. 
Mr.  Amory's 
remarks. 


Dr.  Holmes's 
remarks. 


258 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  E 

Mass.  Hist. 
Society. 
Dr.  Holmes's 
remarks. 


present,  following  so  closely  as  it  does  on  our  be 
reavement. 

"  To  those  of  us  who  remember  Mr.  Motley  dur 
ing  his  last  visit  to  this  country,  his  death,  though 
it  was  a  blow  to  many  lingering  hopes,  was  hardly 
a  surprise.  But  if  we  go  back  a  few  more  years, 
and  recall  him  as  he  appeared  at  our  meeting  of 
November,  1868,  he  comes  before  us  with  the 
promise  of  a  long  afternoon  and  evening  to  a  life 
which  was  still  in  the  brightness  of  its  intellectual 
meridian.  It  fell  to  him  on  that  occasion  to  speak 
before  us  of  his  friend,  the  late  Dean  Milman,  and 
I  am  sure  that  not  one  of  those  who  listened  to 
him  can  forget  the  effect  his  words  and  his  presence 
produced  upon  all  who  were  gathered  around  him. 

"  He  stood  before  us,  a  scholar  speaking  of  a 
man  of  letters,  and  his  words  had  the  fitness,  the 
balance,  the  flow,  which  belong  to  an  imperial  mas 
ter  of  language.  He  was  speaking  of  one  who  was, 
as  he  said,  '  his  life  long  a  conspicuous  ornament 
of  the  most  cultivated  society  of  London  and  of 
England ' ;  and  here  was  in  his  own  person  and 
address  that  harmonious  union  of  rare  qualities 
which  all  the  world  over  is  the  master-key  that 
opens  every  door,  the  countersign  that  passes  every 
sentinel,  the  unsealed  letter  of  introduction  to  all 
the  highest  circles  of  the  highest  civilization. 
Scholars  are  frequently  forgetful  of  the  outward 


Appendix. 


graces  which  commend  the  man  of  the  world  to 
social  favor.  Here  was  a  scholar  who,  to  say  the 
least,  had  rivalled  the  most  robust  and  patient  of 
our  workers  in  drudgery,  who  had  ploughed  through 
manuscripts  without  number,  whose  crabbed  char 
acters  and  uncouth  phrases  might  well  have  tried 
Champollion's  temper ;  yet  here  was  a  man  of  such 
natural  graces  and  such  distinguished  bearing,  that 
he  seemed  to  belong  rather  to  the  gilded  saloon 
than  to  the  dusty  library. 

"  Let  me  touch  briefly  upon  a  few  periods  in  his 
life.  I  remember  him  as  a  handsome,  spirited- 
looking  boy  at  Harvard  College,  where,  at  the  early 
age  of  thirteen,  he  joined  the  class  two  years  after 
my  own,  graduating  in  1831.  He  was  'probably 
the  youngest  student  in  college,  said  to  be  as  bright 
as  he  looked,  and  with  the  reputation  of  a  remark 
able  talent  for  learning  languages.  Two  years 
make  a  wide  gulf  in  college  life,  and  my  intercourse 
with  him  was  less  frequent  than  at  a  later  period. 
I  recollect  him  in  those  earlier  days  as  vivacious, 
attractive,  brilliant,  with  such  a  lustre  of  promise 
about  him  as  belonged  to  hardly  any  other  of  my 
own  date,  and  after  it,  in  my  four  years'  college 
experience,  if  I  perhaps  except  William  Sturgis, 
whom  a  swift  summons  called  from  our  side  in  all 
the  beauty  of  his  early  youth.  Motley  was  more 
nearly  the  ideal  of  a  young  poet  than  any  boy  — 


A.PPENDIX  E. 


Mass.  Hist. 
Society. 
Dr.  Holmes's 
remarks. 


260 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


for  lie  was  only  a  boy  as  yet  —  who  sat  on  the 
benches  of  the  college  chapel.  In  after  years,  one 
who  knew  Lord  Byron  most  nearly  noted  his 
resemblance  to  that  great  poet,  and  spoke  of  it  to 
one  of  my  friends ;  but  in  our  young  days  many 
pretty  youths  affected  that  resemblance,  and  were 
laughed  at  for  their  pains,  so  that  if  Motley  recalled 
Byron's  portrait,  it  was  only  because  he  could  not 
help  it.  His  finely  shaped  and  expressive  features ; 
his  large,  luminous  eyes ;  his  dark,  waving  hair ; 
the  singularly  spirited  set  of  his  head,  which  was 
most  worthy  of  note  for  its  shapely  form  and  poise  ; 
his  well-outlined  figure,  —  all  gave  promise  of  his 
manly  beauty,  and  commended  him  to  those  even 
who  could  not  fully  appreciate  the  richer  endow 
ments  of  which  they  were  only  the  outward  signa 
ture.  How  often  such  gifts  and  promises  disap 
point  those  who  count  upon  their  future  we  who 
have  seen  the  November  of  so  many  Aprils  know 
too  well  But  with  every  temptation  to  a  life  of 
pleasant  self-indulgence,  flattery  and  the  love  of 
luxury  could  not  spoil  him.  None  knew  better 
what  they  meant.  '  Give  me  the  luxuries,  and  I 
will  dispense  with  the  necessaries,  of  life,'  was  a 
playful  saying  of  his,  which  is  one  of  the  three 
wittiest  things  that  have  been  said  in  Boston  in  our 
time,  and  which,  I  think,  has  not  been  fairly 
claimed  for  any  other  wit  of  any  period. 


Apj)endix. 

"  Soon  after  graduation,  Motley  left  this  country 
for  Germany,  where  he  studied  two  years  longer  in 
the  universities  of  Berlin  and  Gottingen.  I  my 
self  was  absent  from  the  country  when  he  returned, 
and  only  renewed  an  acquaintance,  which  then 
grew  to  intimacy  with  him,  after  my  own  return 
from  a  residence  in  Europe,  at  the  end  of  the  year 
1835.  He  was  at  that  time  just  entering  upon  the 
practice  of  law,  the  profession  which  he  had 
studied,  but  in  the  labors  of  which  he  never  be 
came  very  seriously  engaged. 

"  His  first  literary  venture  of  any  note  was  the 
story  called  '  Morton's  Hope  ;  or,  The  Memoirs  of  a 
Provincial.'  This  first  effort  failed  to  satisfy  the 
critics,  the  public,  or  himself.  His  personality  per 
vaded  the  characters  and  times  which  he  portrayed, 
so  that  there  was  a  discord  between  the  actor  and 
his  costume.  Brilliant  passages  could  not  save  it ; 
and  it  was  plain  enough  that  he  must  ripen  into 
something  better  before  the  world  would  give  him 
the  reception  which  surely  awaited  him  if  he  should 
find  his  true  destination. 

"  The  early  failures  of  a  great  writer  are  like  the 
first  sketches  of  a  great  artist,  and  well  reward 
patient  study.  More  than  this,  the  first  efforts  of 
poets  and  story-tellers  are  very  commonly  palimp 
sests  :  beneath  the  rhymes  or  the  fiction  one  can 
almost  always  spell  out  the  characters  which  be- 


2G1 


AJ>PEHDIX  E. 


Mass.  Hist 
Society. 
Dr.  Holmes'* 

remarks. 


262 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  E 


Mass.  Hist. 
Society. 
l)r.  Holmes' 
remarks. 


tray  the  writer's  self.  Take  these  passages  from 
the  story  just  referred  to :  — 

" '  Ah !  flattery  is  a  sweet  and  intoxicating  po 
tion,  whether  we  drink  it  from  an  earthen  ewer  or 

a  golden  chalice Flattery  from  man  to  woman 

is  expected  :  it  is  a  part  of  the  courtesy  of  society ; 
but  when  the  divinity  descends  from  the  altar  to 
burn  incense  to  the  priest,  what  wonder  if  the  idol 
ater  should  feel  himself  transformed  into  a  god ! ' 

"  He  had  run  the  risk  of  being  spoiled,  but  he 
had  a  safeguard  in  his  aspirations. 

'"My  ambitious  anticipations,'  says  Morton,  in 
the  story,  '  were  as  boundless  as  they  were  various 
and  conflicting.  There  was  not  a  path  which  leads 
to  glory  in  which  I  was  not  destined  to  gather 
laurels.  As  a  warrior,  I  would  conquer  and  over 
run  the  world ;  as  a  statesman,  I  would  reorganize 
and  govern  it ;  as  a  historian,  I  would  consign  it 
all  to  immortality ;  and,  in  my  leisure  moments,  I 
would  be  a  great  poet  and  a  man  of  the  world.' 

"Who  can  doubt  that  in  this  passage  of  his 
story  he  is  picturing  his  own  visions,  one  of  the 
fairest  of  which  was  destined  to  become  reality  ? 

"  But  there  was  another  element  in  his  character, 
which  those  who  knew  him  best  recognized  as  one 


Appendix. 

with  which  he  had  to  struggle  hard,  —  that  is,  a 
modesty  which  sometimes  tended  to  collapse  into 
self-distrust.  This,  too,  betrays  itself  in  the  sen 
tences  which  follow  those  just  quoted :  — 

" '  In  short,'  says  Morton, '  I  was  already  enrolled 
in  that  large  category  of  what  are  called  young 
men  of  genius, ....  men  of  whom  unheard-of  things 
are  expected;  till  after  long  preparation  comes  a 
portentous  failure,  and  then  they  are  forgotten. .... 
Alas !  for  the  golden  imaginations  of  our  youth. 
.  .  .  .  They  are  all  disappointments.  They  are  bright 
and  beautiful,  but  they  fade.' 

"  Mr.  Motley's  diplomatic  experience  began  with 
his  appointment  as  Secretary  of  Legation  to  the 
American  Embassy  to  Eussia,  in  1840,  —  a  position 
which  he  held  for  a  few  months  only,  and  then  re 
turned  to  this  country. 

"  In  1845  he  wrote  an  article  on  Peter  the  Great 
for  the  North  American  Eeview,  which  suggested 
to  many  of  his  friends  that,  though  he  had  not 
taken  the  place  as  a  novelist  he  might  have  hoped 
for,  there  was  in  him  the  stronger  fibre  of  an  his 
torian.  He  did  not,  however,  give  up  the  idea  of 
succeeding  in  his  earlier  field  of  effort;  and  in 
1849  he  published  his  second  story,  —  'Merry- 
Mount,  a  Eomance  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony ' ; 
which  again,  with  all  its  merits  of  style  and  its 
brilliancy  of  description,  was  found  wanting  in  some 


263 


PPENDIX  E. 


Mass.  Hist 
Society. 
Dr.Holmes's 
remarks. 


2G4 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


of  the  qualities  demanded  by  an  historical  novel, 
and  settled  the  question  for  him  that  his  genius 
was  not  in  every  way  adapted  to  that  kind  of  com 
position.  The  truth  was,  he  could  not  divest  him 
self  of  his  personality  and  lose  his  individual  char 
acter  in  that  of  his  own  creations.  It  will  be  no 
ticed,  that,  while  his  first  story  turned  on  the 
adventures  of  an  individual,  his  second  story  came 
much  nearer  to  the  complexion  of  a  true  history. 
It  was  at  about  this  uncertain  period  of  his  career 
that  a  friend  of  his  found  him  at  work  one  day 
with  a  Dutch  folio  and  a  dictionary  of  that  lan 
guage.  On  being  asked  what  he  was  doing  with 
those  uninviting  books,  he  spoke  of  his  turning  his 
studies  in  the  direction  of  history.  '  I  must  break 
myself  on  something,'  he  said. 

"What  came  of  the  studies  which  began  with 
that  Dutch  dictionary  you  all  know,  the  whole  lit 
erary  world  knows,  and  I  need  not  recite  the  story. 
Neither  will  I  take  up  your  time  with  criticisms 
upon  those  noble  works,  which  have  passed  their 
ordeal,  and  stand  among  the  foremost  contributions 
of  the  New  World  to  the  literature  of  the  Old. 
The  personal  enthusiasm  which  gives  a  glow  to 
every  page,  the  inborn  love  of  freedom,  the  gener 
ous  sympathy  with  all  that  is  lofty,  and  the  pas 
sionate  scorn  of  all  that  is  petty  and  base,  the 
richness  of  his  descriptions,  the  vigor  of  his  por- 


Appendix. 


traits,  —  to  speak  of  these  is  to  repeat  the  common 
places  of  all  our  literary  tribunals.  I  cannot  re 
frain  from  adding  a  single  thought  which  I  do  not 
remember  having  met  with. 

"  The  sturdy  little  State  of  Holland  —  a  nation 
with  a  population  comparable  for  numbers  with 
that  of  the  city  of  London  —  offers  itself  to  too 
many  English  and  American  minds  with  the  unhe- 
roic  aspect  in  which  the  Dutchman  has  been  pre 
sented  in  the  satirical  verse  of  Marvell  and  the 
ludicrous  travesty  of  Irving.  We  cannot  keep  the 
pictures  and  figures  of  Diedrich  Knickerbocker  out 
of  our  fancies  when  we  think  of  a  Hollander.  Mr. 
Graham,  the  English  historian  of  the  United  States, 
complains  that  Mr.  Irving  '  has  by  anticipation  rid 
iculed  my  topic  and  parodied  my  narrative.'  We 
can  still  smile,  or  laugh,  as  Sir  Walter  Scott  did, 
over  the  extravagances  of  our  great  American  hu 
morist  ;  but  it  remained  for  an  American  historian 
to  assert  the  true  dignity  of  the  valiant  people  who 
conquered  an  empire  from  the  waves,  and  rescued 
it  from  the  tyranny  of  still  more  lawless  masters. 
The  world  can  forgive  all  the  playful  mischief  of 
the  satirist  so  long  as  it  contemplates  the  majestic 
figure  of  William  the  Silent,  and  reads  the  story  of 
the  defence  of  Leyden,  the  record  of  John  of  Barne- 
veldt,  and  the  romantic  episode  of  Hugo  Grotius  in 
the  pages  of  Motley. 


APPENDIX  E. 


266 


John  LotJirop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  E 


Mass.  Hist. 
Society. 
Dr.  Holmes'* 
remarks. 


"  I  shall  not  do  more  than  allude  to  the  further 
diplomatic  career  of  our  honored  associate.  I  know 
that  it  ended  in  disappointment,  and  a  feeling  that 
a  great  wrong  had  been  done  him.  But  I  know, 
also,  that  his  highest  office  was  undertaken  with  a 
profound  sense  of  responsibility;  that  its  duties 
were  discharged  as  faithfully  as  he  knew  how  to 
perform  them;  and  that,  whatever  sting  was  left 
by  the  manner  in  which  he  had  been  dealt  with, 
there  was  no  poison  of  self-reproach  to  rankle  in 
the  wound.  Those  who  will  search  curiously 
enough  in  the  'life  of  John  of  Barneveld'  will 
discover  at  least  one  passage  in  which  the  writer's 
own  violated  sensibilities  find  an  expression  in  the 
record  of  another's  grievance,  —  the  natural  device 
by  which  men  and  women  of  all  ages  have  sought 
relief  :  — 

<t>a(Tiv,  cr^tutv  S  avrfav  /oJS 


I  do  not  believe  that  the  violence  which  reached 
the  nervous  centres  of  Sumner's  life  told  on  him 
with  more  fatal  effect  than  the  rude  shock  of  Mr. 
Motley's  sudden  recall  from  England  upon  his 
proud  and  excitable  spirit,  and  through  his  sensi 
bilities  on  the  organ  of  thought,  from  the  internal 
laceration  of  which  he  died. 

"  A  slight  attack  —  hardly  serious  enough  in  its 
effects  to  be  called  paralytic  —  interrupted  the  lit- 


Appendix. 

erary  labors  which  he  had  resumed  after  the  close 
of  his  diplomatic  career.  His  speech  never  seems 
to  have  been  affected,  and  his  handwriting  showed 
no  remarkable  change,  though  he  complained  of 
weight  and  weakness  of  the  right  side,  and  found  it 
a  considerable  effort  to  write.  He  was  slowly  re 
gaining  something  of  his  usual  health  and  spirits, 
when  the  death,  in  December,  1874,  of  the  lovely 
and  noble  woman  who  had  made  the  happiness  of 
his  life,  cast  the  deep  shadow  over  him  which  was 
never  lifted.  He  passed  the  summer  which  fol 
lowed  his  bereavement  in  this  country,  where  for 
some  weeks  I  saw  him  daily,  and  under  those  con 
ditions  which  revealed  his  inmost  nature  more  com 
pletely  than  I  had  ever  known  it  in  my  long 
intimacy  with  him.  He  appeared  to  have  forgotten 
all  lesser  trials  in  the  one  great  sorrow  which  had 
left  his  life  so  nearly  desolate.  One  thought,  one 
feeling,  seemed  ever  present ;  an  undercurrent  which 
betrayed  itself  not  by  unmanly  signs  of  weakness, 
but  by  the  tenderness  and  the  reverence  to  which 
the  memory  of  her  from  whom  he  had  been  parted 
saddened  and  subdued  every  accent.  The  language 
in  which  he  spoke  of  his  wife  was  the  highest  trib 
ute  to  womanhood  that  ever  found  words  on  living 
lips  in  my  hearing.  And  not  to  womanhood,  not 
to  that  noble  woman  alone,  for  they  revealed  the 
passionate  intensity  of  his  own  loving  nature,  and 


267 


APPENDIX  E. 


Mass.  Hist. 
Society. 
Dr.  Ilolmes's 
remarks. 


268 


John  Lotlirop  Motley. 


showed  us  better  than  we  ever  understood  before 
what  was  his  peculiar  underlying  charm,  and  why 
we  who  loved  him  had  loved  him  with  such  strong 
affection. 

"But  time  has  anodynes  for  griefs  it  cannot 
cure,  and  his  letters  showed  that  he  was  doing  his 
best  to  bear  his  burden  of  sorrow,  and  that  the 
affection  of  those  who  were  left  him  was  not  with 
out  its  healing  influences.  He  had  even  hoped  to 
be  able  to  do  something  more  in  the  way  of  lit 
erary  labor,  when  suddenly,  on  the  29th  of  May, 
without  any  immediate  warning,  the  thread  by 
which  his  fate  hung  over  him  parted.  The  sum 
mons,  though  at  an  unexpected  moment,  might 
have  been  looked  for  at  any  time.  The  stroke  fell 
like  a  blow  on  the  already  suffering  organ  through 
which  his  untiring  intellect  had  wrought  its  vast 
and  exhausting  labors.  '  It  has  come ! '  he  said, 
and,  after  a  few  hours  of  unconscious  life  in  death, 
he  passed  quietly  away. 

"He  leaves  all  his  uncounted  honors,  which  I 
need  not  try  to  enumerate ;  he  leaves  the  unbla- 
zoned  record  of  a  social  career  hardly  rivalled  for 
the  brilliancy  of  its  success ;  his  works,  sacred  to 
heroism,  the  spirit  of  freedom  and  humanity,  are 
his  monument ;  and,  amidst  the  sorrowing  tears  of 
those  who  dearly  loved  him,  in  many  lands  and  in 
eveiy  station  of  life,  from  the  lowliest  to  the  lof- 


Appendix. 


269 


tiest,  he  is  laid  by  the  side  of  her  from  whom 
he  would  not  have  been  parted  in  death,  to  sleep 
in  the  mausoleum  of  a  nation  surrounded  by 
the  sepulchres  of  those  who  have  made  her  his 
tory." 

The  Rev.  E.  C.  Waterston  then  said :  — 

"  It  is  a  pleasant  thought,  Mr.  President,  to  re 
member  that  the  two  members  whom  we  to-day 
commemorate  were  personal  friends.  I  have  here 
a  brief  letter  from  Mr.  Motley  to  Mr.  Quincy,  — 
the  last  letter  which  Mr.  Quincy  ever  received  from 
him,  —  written  in  pencil,  from  Nahant,  during  his 
last  visit  to  this  country.  It  may  have  some  inter 
est  at  this  moment. 

"'MY  DEAR  QUINCY, — Many  thanks  for  your 
kind  words  of  remembrance,  and  for  your  Memoir 
of  Charles  Sprague.  I  perfectly  remember  our  visit 
to  the  venerable  poet,  and  am  highly  gratified  that 
he  should  have  been  pleased  by  it.  I  have  read 
your  Memoir  with  much  interest  and  sympathy, 
and  should  think  it  a  very  just,  and  not  in  the 
least  an  over-appreciative,  tribute  to  his  delicate 
genius  and  genuine  and  honorable  character. 

"'There  are  a  good  many  lines  of  his  poetry 
which  I  can  repeat  now,  and  could  do  ever  since  I 
was  a  Sophomore.  I  hope  to  see  you  in  Boston  be 
fore  I  leave,  which  will  be  in  October,  as  people 


APPENDIX  B. 


Mass.  Hist. 
Society. 


B«T.  Mr. 

Waterston'i 

remark*. 


Mr.  Motley'i 
last  note  to 
Mr.  Edmund 
Quincy. 


270 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


seem  to  decide  that  the  winter  here  will  be  too 
severe  for  me. 

"  Pray  excuse  my  illegible  pencilling,  but  it  is 
very  hard  work  for  me  to  write. 

" '  I  am  your  sincere  friend, 

"'J.  L.  MOTLEY.'" 

Mr.  "Waterston  continued :  "  Mr.  Motley,  after 
the  publication  of  his  '  Merry-Mount,'  expressed 
his  regret  to  Mr.  Quincy  that  it  had  met  with  so 
little  success.  Mr.  Quincy  replied :  '  Motley,  turn 
your  attention  to  history.  Your  style  is  admirably 
adapted  to  that,  and  every  power  of  your  mind 
would  there  find  ample  scope,  and  the  result,  I  am 
sure,  would  meet  with  success.'  'Do  you  think 
so  ? '  he  said.  '  I  feel  certain  of  your  perfect 
triumph  in  that  field/  continued  Mr.  Quincy.  It 
is  pleasant  to  think  that  these  life-long  friends  went 
so  nearly  together.  United  in  their  lives,  in  their 
death  they  were  not  divided." 

Professor  William  Everett  then  spoke  as  fol 
lows  :  — 

"  There  is  one  incident,  sir,  in  Mr.  Motley's  ca 
reer  that  has  not  been  mentioned  to-day,  which  is, 
perhaps,  most  vividly  remembered  by  those  of  us 
who  were  in  Europe  at  the  outbreak  of  our  civil 
war  in  1861.  At  that  time,  the  ignorance  of  Eng- 


Appendix. 

lishmen,  friendly  or  otherwise,  about  America,  was 
infinite  :  they  knew  very  little  of  us,  and  that  little 
wrong.  Americans  were  overwhelmed  with  ques 
tions,  taunts,  threats,  misrepresentations,  the  out 
growth  of  ignorance,  and  ignoring  worse  than 
ignorance,  from  every  class  of  Englishmen.  Never 
was  an  authoritative  exposition  of  our  hopes  and 
policy  worse  needed ;  and  there  was  no  one  to  do 
it.  The  outgoing  diplomatic  agents  represented  a 
bygone  order  of  things  ;  the  representatives  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  administration  had  not  come.  At  that 
time  of  anxiety,  Mr.  Motley,  living  in  England  as 
a  private  person,  came  forward  with  two  letters  in 
the  Times,  which  set  forth  the  cause  of  the  United 
States  once  and  for  all.  No  unofficial,  and  few 
official,  men  could  have  spoken  with  such  author 
ity,  and  been  so  certain  of  obtaining  a  hearing 
from  Englishmen.  Thereafter,  amid  all  the  clouds 
of  falsehood  and  ridicule  which  we  had  to  encoun 
ter,  there  was  one  lighthouse  fixed  on  a  rock  to 
which  we  could  go  for  foothold,  from  which  we 
could  not  be  driven,  and  against  which  all  assaults 
were  impotent. 

"  There  can  be  no  question  that  the  effect  pro 
duced  by  these  letters  helped,  if  help  had  been 
needed,  to  point  out  Mr.  Motley  as  a  candidate  for 
high  diplomatic  place  who  could  not  be  overlooked. 
Their  value  was  recognized  alike  by  his  fellow- 


271 


272 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  £ 


Ma-s.  Hist. 
Society. 


citizens  in  America  and  his  admirers  in  England ; 
but  none  valued  them  more  than  the  little  band  cf 
exiles,  who  were  struggling  against  terrible  odds, 
and  who  rejoiced  with  a  great  joy  to  see  the  stars 
and  stripes,  whose  centennial  anniversary  those 
guns  are  now  celebrating,  planted  by  a  hand  so 
truly  worthy  to  rally  every  American  to  its  sup 
port." 

Remarks  were  also  made  by  the  Eev.  S.  K. 
Lothrop,  D.  D.,  and  the  resolutions  were  unani 
mously  adopted,  all  the  members  rising. 

The  President  appointed  Professor  Lowell  to 
write  the  Memoir  of  Mr.  Quincy,  and  Dr.  Holmes 
that  of  Mr.  Motley,  for  the  Society's  "  Proceedings." 

On  motion  of  Mr.  George  B.  Emerson,  it  was 
"  Voted,  That  the  commemorative  proceedings  of 
this  meeting  be  printed." 


Appendix. 


273 


Appendix  P. 

List  of  his  Honorary  Titles, 

THE  following  list  of  the  Societies  of  which  Mr. 
Motley  was  a  member  is  from  a  memorandum  in 
his  own  handwriting,  dated  November,  1866. 

Historical  Society  of  Massachusetts. 
"  "       "  Minnesota. 

«  «       «  New  York. 

"  «       «  Rhode  Island. 

"  "       "  Maryland. 

"  "       "  Tennessee. 


American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

Doctor  of  Laws,  New  York  University. 
"        "       "     Harvard  " 

"        "  Literature,  New  York  University. 

Royal  Society  of  Antiquaries,  England. 

Doctor  of  Laws,  Oxford  University,  England. 
"        "       "     Cambridge     "  « 

Athenaeum  Club,  London. 

Royal  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  of  Amsterdam. 

Historical  Society  of  Utrecht,  Holland. 


APMSITDIX  F. 


Honorary 
titles,  etc. 


274 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  F. 


Honorary 
titles,  etc. 


Historical  Society  of  Leyden,  Holland. 
Doctor  of  Philosophy,  University  of  Groningen. 
Corresponding  Member  of  French  Institute ;   Acad 
emy  of  Moral  and  Political  Sciences. 

Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  of  Petersburg. 
Doctor  of  Laws,  University  of  Leyden. 

The  last  honorary  title  conferred  upon  him  was  that 
of  Foreign  Associate  of  the  French  Academy  of  Moral 
and  Political  Sciences.  This  is  the  highest  title  the 
Academy  can  confer. 


Appendix. 


275 


Appendix  G. 

Poems  by  W.  W.  Story  and  William  CuUen  Bryant. 

I  CANNOT  close  this  Memoir  more  appropriately 
than  by  appending  the  two  following  poetical 
tributes :  — 

IN  MEMORIAM,  -  JOHN  LOTHROP  MOTLEY. 

BY   W.    W.    STORY. 

Farewell,  dear  friend  !     For  us  the  grief  and  pain, 

Who  shall  not  see  thy  living  face  again  j 

For  us  the  sad  yet  nohle  memories 

Of  lofty  thoughts,  of  upward-looking  eyes, 

Of  warm  affections,  of  a  spirit  bright 

With  glancing  fancies  and  a  radiant  light, 

That,  flashing,  threw  around  all  common  things 

Heroic  halos  and  imaginings  ; 

Nothing  of  this  can  fade  while  life  shall  last, 

But  brighten,  with  death's  shadow  o'er  it  cast. 

For  us  the  pain  ;  for  thee  the  larger  life, 
The  higher  being,  freed  from  earthly  strife  ; 
Death  hath  but  opened  unto  thee  the  door 
Thy  spirit  knocked  so  strongly  at  before  ; 


APPENDIX  G. 


Poem  by 
W.W.  Story. 


276 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  G 


Poem  by 
W.W.  Story. 


And  as  a  falcon  from  its  cage  set  free, 
Where  it  has  pined  and  fluttered  helplessly, 
Longing  to  soar,  and  gazing  at  the  sky 
Where  its  strong  wings  their  utmost  flight  may  try, 
So  has  thy  soul,  from  out  life's  broken  bars, 
Sprung  in  a  moment  up  beyond  the  stars, 
Where  all  thy  powers  unfettered,  unconfined, 
Their  native  way  in  loftier  regions  find. 

Ah,  better  thus,  in  one  swift  moment  freed, 
Than  wounded,  stricken,  here  to  drag  and  bleed ! 
This  was  the  fate  we  feared,  but  happy  Death 
Has  swept  thee  from  us,  as  a  sudden  breath 
Wrings  the  ripe  fruit  from  off  the  shaken  bough,  — 
And  ours  the  sorrow,  thine  the  glory  now ! 

How  memory  goes  back,  and  lingering  dwells 

On  the  lost  past,  and  its  fond  story  tells  ! 

When  glad  ambition  fired  thy  radiant  face, 

And  youth  was  thine,  and  hope,  and  manly  grace, 

And  Life  stood  panting  to  begin  its  race ; 

Thine  eyes  their  summer  lightning  flashing  out, 

Thy  brow  with  dark  locks  clustering  thick  about, 

Thy  sudden  laugh  from  lips  so  sensitive, 

Thy  proud,  quick  gestures,  all  thy  face  alive,  — 

These,  like  a  vision  of  the  morning,  rise 

And  brightly  pass  before  my  dreaming  eyes. 

And  then  again  I  see  thee,  when  the  breath 

Of  the  great  world's  applause  first  stirred  the  wreath 


Appendix. 

That  Fame  upon  thy  head  ungrudging  placed ; 
Modest  and  earnest,  all  thy  spirit  braced 
To  noble  ends,  and  with  a  half  excess 
As  of  one  running  in  great  eagerness, 
And  leaning  forward  out  beyond  the  poise 
Of  coward  prudence,  holding  but  as  toys 
The  world's  great  favors,  when  it  sought  to  stay 
Thy  impulsive  spirit  on  its  ardent  way. 

For  thee  no  swerving  to  a  private  end ; 
Stern  in  thy  faith,  that  naught  could  break  or  bend, 
Loving  thy  country,  pledged  to  Freedom's  cause, 
Disdaining  wrong,  abhorrent  of  the  laws 
Expedience  prompted  with  the  tyrant's  plea, 
Wielding  thy  sword  for  Justice  fearlessly,  — 
So  brave,  so  true,  that  nothing  could  deter, 
Nor  friend,  nor  foe,  thy  ready  blow  for  her. 

Ah,  noble  spirit,  whither  hast  thou  fled  ] 
What  doest  thou  amid  the  unnumbered  dead  1 
Oh,  say  not  mid  the  dead,  for  what  hast  thou 
Among  the  dead  to  do  1     No  !  rather  now, 
If  Faith  and  Hope  are  not  a  wild  deceit, 
The  truly  living  thou  hast  gone  to  meet, 
The  noble  spirits  purged  by  death,  whose  eye 
O'erpeers  the  brief  bounds  of  mortality ; 
And  they  behold  thee  rising  there  afar, 
Serenely  clear  above  Time's  cloudy  bar, 
And  greet  thee  as  we  greet  a  rising  star. 


277 


APPENDIX  G. 

Poem  by 
W.  W.  Stoiy. 


278 


John  Lothrop  Motley. 


APPENDIX  G. 


Poem  by 
W.  C.  Bry 
ant. 


IN  MEMORY  OF  JOHN  LOTHROP  MOTLEY. 
BY   WILLIAM   CULLEN   BRYANT. 

Sleep,  Motley,  with  the  great  of  ancient  days, 

Who  wrote  for  all  the  years  that  yet  shall  be. 
Sleep  with  Herodotus,  whose  name  and  praise 

Have  reached  the  isles  of  earth's  remotest  sea. 
Sleep,  while,  defiant  of  the  slow  delays 

Of  Time,  thy  glorious  writings  speak  for  thee 
And  in  the  answering  heart  of  millions  raise 

The  generous  zeal  for  Eight  and  Liberty. 
And  should  the  days  o'ertake  us,  when,  at  last, 

The  silence  that  —  ere  yet  a  human  pen 
Had  traced  the  slenderest  record  of  the  past  — 

Hushed  the  primeval  languages  of  men 
Upon  our  English  tongue  its  spell  shall  cast, 

Thy  memory  shall  perish  only  then. 


